The other day, I was showing some people around the school. They were visiting from Australia. They made a good point that some of the teachers were a bit slow taking down the “Happy New Year” banners from the classrooms. I said that well may be true from their point of view. But you could look at it another way. They are also a little early for the next one. In less than two weeks, on Monday 26th January 2009, the Chinese will be celebrating their own new year - the start of the Year of the Ox.

A number of teachers and students have Chinese ancestry so I guess it would make sense to continue the celebration. In fact, I think about 25% of the students will be absent from school on New Year’s Day at the end of this month. For the teachers and kitchen staff that have to work, there will be a ceremony taking place at the school in order for them to honour their dead ancestors. And of course, there will be some extremely loud firecrackers!

For Thai people, their traditional new year is on April 13th. This is called Songkran and over the years it has turned into a good excuse to have a massive water fight. However, underlying this, by tradition, people will pour a small amount of perfumed water over their elder’s hands and in return will receive a blessing. More about that nearer the time.

In The Nation newspaper, they had a few do’s and don’t for the Chinese New Year. I want to share a few with you:

* Wear new clothes, preferably red.
* Give red envelopes containing money to children.
* Keep your rice bucket fall as it symbolises abundance in the coming year
* Don’t wash your hair or sweep the floor as you might sweep/wash away your good luck.
* Don’t use or carry sharp object as these will pierce any good fortune coming your way.
* Don’t talk loudly, speak badly, say the number four or mention death.
* Don’t drop your chopsticks or break things.
* Don’t borrow or lend money

A happy new year to everyone. See you at the next new year celebrations which is coming very soon!