From: eroth@Apple.COM (Rico)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: Poor Boys & CNY Question (Long)
Date: 22 Jan 93 01:33:11 GMT
Organization: Yet Another California Computer Co., Inc.

Pete Z writes:
>dougg@fnma.com writes:
>>CNY question : Which night is Chinese New Year ?  ....
>The *REAL* Chinese New Year is Saturday 23 Jan 1993 (at
>least, according to my Life In Hell calendar ....)


From a not-for-free news service:


Subject: Enter the rooster -- Chinese ready for lunar new year
         21 Jan 93

	BEIJING -- Chinese around the world are preparing to
ring in the Year of the Rooster Friday with an annual burst of
feasting, travel and deafening fireworks as they greet the
lunar new year.
	From Beijing to Sydney to San Francisco, Chinese
communities are readying for their most important annual
holiday, with celebrants heading to wherever is home and those
already in place organizing parties, seasonal foods and the
traditional pyrotechnics.
	Across China, peasants are slaughtering their fattest
pigs, cleaning house and paying off debts to say farewell to
the Year of the Monkey and welcome the Year of the Rooster at
midnight Friday for a four-day holiday known as the ``Spring
Festival.''
	The rooster year is viewed as among the more
auspicious on the 12- animal Chinese zodiac. Traditional
belief also sees poor fortune on the ``tail of the monkey''
and many couples in China delayed marriages and pregnancies to
have weddings and births this year under the sign of the cock.
	In Beijing, shopkeepers are cashing in on the festival
by selling rooster toys, calendars and other trinkets. The
official Xinhua news agency reported that even the city's
Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets are expecting a bonanza.
	Around Asia, Chinese are traveling by planes, trains
and automobiles and every other means of conveyance to make it
home for the holiday. The lunar new year brings huge traffic
jams in Taiwan, South Korea and other teeming nations.
	About 2.5 million people are expected to cross from
Hong Kong into southern China during the new year period to
visit relatives. Air, rail and boat links are booked solid,
despite added flights and trains.
	Chinese transport agencies have added hundreds of
extra flights, trains and buses to cope with the 910 million
passengers expected nationwide as throngs of travelers head
home.
	In China, most families will stay home and stay up
late Friday night, many watching a six-hour variety
extravaganza on state television or playing the tile gambling
game mah-jongg into the wee hours. They spend succeeding days
visiting friends and relatives.
	Most households will be filled with the smells of
traditional foods like dumplings and most neighborhoods will
resound with the traditional barrage of fireworks, which
traditional legend sees as a means of driving off ghosts and
evil spirits.
	Authorities across China have tried to crack down on
illegal fireworks and reduce the related casualties, but early
celebrants in Beijing are already blasting off new
high-altitude rockets and a new firecracker that is more like
a stick of dynamite.
	Fireworks are essentially banned in Hong Kong and
Singapore, but Hong Kong puts on a huge official fireworks
display over its picturesque Victoria Harbor and Singapore
will organize a similar show Friday night.
	Singapore takes its private firecracker ban seriously.
Offenders can be fined, jailed or even caned.
	The lunar new year is also a time for fortune telling.
One seer in Taiwan is predicting coups in the developing world
and turmoil in Asia this year.
	But a Hong Kong astrologer, Paul Lam, predicts the
rooster will be a good year for the Hong Kong financial
markets, although he warns European markets may be more
volatile.
	And, Lam says, U.S. President Bill Clinton has a
``good nose'' in terms of ancient Chinese physiognomy, a good
omen for his new presidency.

-- 
----
   "I've been a chief executive for something for 15 years
   and now that I  have  some  time to  myself, I  realize
   working is overrated."     -- Fay Vincent
----
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