Happy Holidays

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,330
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
As I'm going to be busy with friends and family over the holiday season (and won't be online for a week or two), just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy a safe and pleasent holiday period.
 

CougTek

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
8,726
Location
Québec, Québec
Holidays? WHAT HOLIDAYS? I'm working like a mad man just trying to keep up with the amount of work I have. People are crazy this time of the year and everyone wants everything before Friday. But the suppliers, unlike the customers, are feeling really relax and many among them have stopped taking orders...last Friday! Finding hardware to fulfill my orders has been insane and it'll be a miracle if I receive everything soon enough. It's mad, mad, mad, mad, MAD!

Christmas is pure evil.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
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Location
USA
Do you really partake and celebrate in kwanzaa or are you just saying that because you dislike people saying merry christmas or dislike the holiday in general?
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
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USA
Festivus and everyting is over. Time for a rotten 2010.
 

udaman

Wannabe Storage Freak
Joined
Sep 20, 2006
Messages
1,209
Festivus and everyting is over. Time for a rotten 2010.

Not so fast...ya damn'd racists :D

Food items Name Description Buddha's delight
(simplified Chinese: 罗汉斋; traditional Chinese: 羅漢齋; pinyin: luóhàn zhāi) An elaborate vegetarian dish served by Chinese families on the eve and the first day of the New Year. A type of black hair-like algae, pronounced "fat choy" in Cantonese, is also featured in the dish for its name, which sounds like "prosperity". Hakkas usually serve kiu nyuk (Chinese: 扣肉; pinyin: kòuròu) and ngiong teu fu.

There you go LM, vegetarian Chinese food for you, as Racheal R. would say Yumm-O!

paugie should be familiar with this one:

Nian gao (Chinese: 年糕) Most popular in eastern China (Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai) because its pronunciation is a homophone for "a more prosperous year (年高 lit. year high)". Nian gao is also popular in the Philippines because of its large Chinese population and is known as tikoy there. Known as Chinese New Year pudding, nian gao is made up of glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, salt, water, and sugar. The colour of the sugar used determines the colour of the pudding (white or brown).

Sunday Feb 14, 2010... year of the Tiger;most important celebration on the Chinese calendar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/lunar-NY/

The origin of the Lunar New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years, involving a series of colorful legends and traditions. One of the most famous legends is Nian 年, an extremely cruel and ferocious beast that the ancients believed would devour people on New Year’s Eve. To keep Nian away, red-paper couplets are pasted on doors, torches are lit, and firecrackers are set off throughout the night, because Nian is said to fear the color red, the light of fire, and loud noises. Early the next morning, as feelings of triumph and renewal fill the air at successfully keeping Nian away for another year, the most popular greeting heard is gong xi 恭喜, or “congratulations.”
To ensure good luck in the coming year, the Taiwanese always give every dish a special name. This dish is called “Five Blessings for the New Year” and represents longevity, wealth, peace, wisdom, and righteousness. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

Even though Lunar New Year celebrations generally last for only several days, starting on New Year’s Eve, the festival itself is actually about three weeks long. It begins on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the day, it is believed, when various gods ascend to heaven to pay their respects and report on household affairs to the Jade Emperor, the supreme Taoist deity. According to tradition, households busily honor these gods by burning ritualistic paper money to provide for their traveling expenses. Another ritual is to smear malt sugar on the lips of the Kitchen God, one of the traveling deities, to ensure that he either submits a favorable report to the Jade Emperor or keeps silent.
Next, “spring couplets” are hung up around the house. Spring couplets are paper scrolls and squares inscribed with blessings and auspicious words, such as “good fortune,” “wealth,” “longevity,” and “springtime.” The paper squares are usually pasted upside down, because the Mandarin word for “upside down,” dao, is a homonym of the word “arrival.” Thus, the paper squares represent the “arrival” of spring and the “coming” of prosperous times.

Tradition says that the wider the split in the top of the fa gao 發糕, which is a type of rice cake, the more prosperous the coming year will be.
On Lunar New Year’s Eve, family members who are no longer living at home make a special effort to return home for reunion and share in a sumptuous meal. At that time, family members hand out hong bao, or “lucky money” in red envelopes, to elders and children. They also try to stay up all night to welcome the New Year, as it has long been believed that by so doing on New Year’s Eve, their parents would live a longer life. Thus, lights are kept on the entire night—not just to drive away Nian, as in ancient times, but also to make the most of the family get-together. In addition, some families even hold religious ceremonies after midnight to welcome the God of the New Year into their homes, a ritual that is often concluded with a huge barrage of firecrackers.
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
667
A LITTLE CHRISTMAS STORY


When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were
about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out,
Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked,
the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot
of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk
all the cider and hidden the liquor.. In his frustration, he
accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of
little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the
broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the
broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the
door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big
Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a
lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to
stick it?'

And thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the
Christmas tree.


Merry Christmas
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,730
Location
USA
Depending on the store, I'm not sure what they said or even if it was in English. Maybe my countenance scares the clerks. :D
Normally I say, "You too."
 

CougTek

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
8,726
Location
Québec, Québec
Holidays? WHAT HOLIDAYS? I'm working like a mad man just trying to keep up with the amount of work I have. People are crazy this time of the year and everyone wants everything before Friday. But the suppliers, unlike the customers, are feeling really relax and many among them have stopped taking orders...last Friday! Finding hardware to fulfill my orders has been insane and it'll be a miracle if I receive everything soon enough. It's mad, mad, mad, mad, MAD!

Christmas is pure evil.
I'll just quote myself from last year because a year later, I'm in the EXACT same situation.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,730
Location
USA
Damn it, Merc. Please try to enjoy the holidays. :reindeer: :santa: Do you have family that can be visited?
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
4,932
Location
Brisbane, Oz
Well, it's now the 25th December in the important parts of the world, so Happy Christmas to everyone, regardless of whether or not you celebrate it.

Here, it rained yesterday, it's raining today, it will rain tomorrow, the day after and for a few days after that. The airport weather station has recorded 389mm (15.3") so far this month, and we're not done yet.

Santa in scuba gear - an intriguing image.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
4,932
Location
Brisbane, Oz
A small cyclone just crossed the coast about a thousand miles north of here; weather stations there recorded >150mm (6") overnight. Apparently, they received nearly 800mm (31") last month.

Australia is the driest (inhabited) continent - believe it or not.

Having a relaxed Christmas with the family, no tree this year because we have 2 1/2 hyperactive kittens onboard. No Christmas lights either because, a) it's always raining and I don't like my powerboards getting drowned or breaking my neck on the slippery tiled roof, and b) I couldn't be bothered.

Still digesting the smorgasbord cold lunch followed by two types of hot pudding with custard and cream. Barbecued chicken, smoked ham, salami, vegan soy meatloaf (!), chive potatoes, chickpea salad, pasta salad, potato and egg salad, mediterranean salad (tomatoes, olives, fetta, cucumber, etc), vine leaves stuffed with rice, kalamata olives, marinated fetta and sundried tomatoes, brie with sea salt flatbread and crackers.

You have to remember it's Summer here. ;)
 

paugie

Storage is cool
Joined
Dec 13, 2003
Messages
702
Location
Bulacan, Philippines
It's 3 minutes before midnight here in Vietnam as I type this. Still time to wish you all Happy Holidays. May you enjoy the rest of 2010. And thanks for being part of my extended family. I cherish your onlne fellowship.
Tomorrow I will be visiting Cambodia. I have a missionary friend and his wife to stay with. Ah and to photograph the Ankor Wat.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
16,730
Location
USA
Yes and a time for remembering Tony, wherever he is and however he is using his time now. May he be healthy and strong.

Yes, I sure hope he is still alive even if not hanging around here. :(
 
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