The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-27
CHINESE CELEBRATE.
new YEAR WITH
GOOD TINE
They Begin Today by Pro
pitiating Their Diyinities
With Incense and Music
and Then Will Follow a
Sumptuous Feast Crack
ers and Wine Will Be To
mOrroW's Diet.

Chinese New Yea alice samee Mel
lean New Yea. ALE samee, melle time.
Eat plentee, talk plentee, walk about
plentee.''
The demure little Celestial who
Vouchsafed this much of information
in regard to the Chinese New Year,
which will be celebrated by ST. Paul
Cinnamon, and all other Cinnamon, to-
day and tomorrow, folded his hands in
his loose sleeves and refused further
confidence.
Mclean man likee poke fun at
Chinaman." he said, severely his little
oblique eyes travelling restlessly from
the carved Hindu idol on which his
lean, brown hand rested to the door
that led into his Oriental curiosity
shop.
w "Chinaman and Mclean man all
samee. Both eat, sleep, dlink, sabe?
Chinaman not f1eak.'
The final bit of slang was jerked out
triumphantly, and the small Chinaman
moved away with dignity to attend to
the wants of some customers.
"John" Is Reticent.
John Chinaman is not communicative
in regard to his customs and his cele-
bratiOns. There are perhaps 200
Cinnamon in st. Paul, and most of
these will unite tomorrow in celebra-
ton of the Chinese New Year, but 1T is
doubtful if their nearest neighbors
will know that anything out of the or
binary is going on in the laundries and
restaurants where the Celestial holds
forth. Yet the holiday which they will
celebrate tomorrow is the most 1mpor-
tant of the festival days of the Chinese
year.
Whatever strange Oriental custom
they may have left behind them when
he nj ri 1orHO or
dropped as they came in contact with
Western civilization, this one they still
hold sacred to the memory of their
great leader, Confucius, from whose
birthday anniversary they reckon the
beginning of their new year.
It's the one day in the year that the
Chinese who have left their native soil
celebrate and make merry.
The merriest part of the celebration
will take place today. At this time
will occur their feast. They will meet
in an appointed place in the city and
observe the strange religious cere-
monies without which the celebration
would be incomplete.
Burn Incense to Divinities.
These will consist of the burning of
incense to the Chinese divinities in or
der to invoke their good will. There
will be band present which, with it's
it's of departed ancestors.
The religious part of the celebration
will be followed by the feast and great
preparations have been made for it.
Wednesday they will don their gayest
attire and call upon their brothers in
the city and extend to them their best
wish for the New Year. They will eat
no meat on this day, only crackers
and wine. This is part or the days
celebration as laid out by Confucius.
This New Year will be known as the
tWenty-ninth year of the reign of
Kwang Hsu, the present emperor of
China, and the 4,449th year as reck-
oned from the birth Of Confucius. The
chronological system of these people
is the oldest in the world, dating back
to the Emperor Yaou. who reigned
1000 years before Christ
How They Reckon Time.
TENS of reckoning time were inaugur-
ated and they have been continued up
to the present without interruption.
One method was by means of the
lunar year, which consisted Of twelve
moons, and the other was by the as
Economical year, measured by the sun,
and in order to keep them concurrent,
ever SO often moon would be put in
the lunar year and not counted.
1t was in the middle of the eighteenth
century that the European system was
instituted and, although it is in force
still in China. the old systems, estab-
l1shed hundreds of years ago, have not
been abandoned.
In 163 B. G. the present popular style
of numbering the years according to
the reign of the emperor was begun
An advantage of having two or three
styles is illustrated by the Chinese an
nails, in which each date is set down
in two or three styles at least, thus
enabling the student of ancient history
to verify the date more exactly than
under the lOOSer EurODean systems