Christmas, also known as Christmas Day or Christmastide, is an annual holiday falling on December 25 or January 7 that honors and celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

It is believed that Christmas tree tradition begun in Germany in the 18th century though many argue that Martin Luther began the tradition in the 16th century and it is unknown exactly why 25th December became associated with Christ's birth as the New Testament does not give the specific date although Sextus Julius Africanus popularized the idea that Christ was born on December 25 in his Chronographiai, a reference book for Christians written in AD 221. This date is nine months after the traditional date of the Incarnation (March 25), now celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation.The Christian idea that Christ was conceived on the same date that he died on the cross is consistent with a Jewish belief that a prophet lived an integral number of years.

The celebration of Christmas as a feast did not arise for some time after Chronographai was published as Tertullian does not mention it as a major feast day in the Church of Roman Africa. Furthermore in 245, the theologian Origen denounced the idea of celebrating Christ's birthday "as if he were a king pharaoh". He contended that only sinners, not saints, celebrated their birthdays.

Christmas celebrated by Luke and Timothy

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important traditional Chinese festival that falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month and ends on the 15th day also known as the Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year eve more commonlt known as Chuxiye. Chu literally means "pass", xi means "eve" and ye means "night".

A Chinese New Year belief was to give out red packets which is passed to unmarried juniors by the eldery or married relatives. Red packets are also known as YaSuiQian which evolved from a word meaning money used to put down or supress evil. Another Chinese belief was that the money given in red packets should not be odd numbered as odd numbers are associated to money given during funerals also known as Bai Jin. Furthermore the money within the red packet should never add up to $4 as 4 is a homophone of death while it is auspicious for the money to add up to $8 as it is a homophone for wealth.

Fireworks are bamboo stems filled with gunpowder that were burnt to create small explosions were once used in ancient China to drive away evil spirits. In modern times, this method has eventually evolved into the use of firecrackers during the festive season. Firecrackers are usually strung on a long fused string so it can be hung down. Each firecracker is rolled up in red papers, as red is auspicious, with gunpowders in its core. Once ignited, the firecracker lets out a loud popping noise and as they are usually strung together by the hundreds, the firecrackers are known for its deafening explosions that it is thought to scare away evil spirits. Another Practice is the shopping for a perfect plum tree which is similar to Westerns shopping for a Christmas tree.
Teck Hui: I feel that Chinese New Year and Christmas have similar parts such as the shopping for a tree but unlike Chinese New Year, Christmas does not have an auspicious colour or practises of setting off firecrackers to drive off evil spirits and even red packets which has a history against evil spirits. But Christmas focused of a saint known as Jesus who was crucified to atone for the people's sin which was astonishing and like the giving of red packets, during Christmas, people exchange gifts.
Hao Tian:During Chinese New Year, most of their pratises were associated with evil spirits while Christmas was much more simple as it is only associated with Jesus' birthday.
Timothy:Jesus died while believing in a prophet while there was no saint or god involved in CNY
Luke : Jesus did not die on the same date as the day he was born jesus was born during christmas and died on good friday he also rise on the third day. Its also written in the bible that jesus was 33 yrs old when he died.


Before Chinese New Year, there was a belief that if u stayed up late after the stroke of midnight, you could prolong your parents' lifespan. So, that is what I did at the eve of Chinese New Year although my parents said that it would shorten our lifespan because we need at least 8 hours of sleep each day. On the first day of Chinese New Year, my parents told my sister and I to accompany them to our grandparents' house at 10am in the morning but my sister and I were reluctant and were moody all the way throughout the bus trip but we were lucky not to be scolded because most Chinese would refrain from shouting during Chinese New Year. When we reached, we were at odds with our parents which lead to many squabbles and my father even threatened to cane us which at last led to our good behaviour. Over the other days of Chinese New Year, we were polite and often spoke with courtesy unlike how we dealt with our parents which improved our relationship with our relatives and many of them praised us. However, although our relations with our relatives improved, our relations with our parents worsened. Until my sister and I were tired of quarreling and decided to make peace with our parents thus reliving the dispute. So, after that was settled, my sister and I finally got to enjoy our Chinese New Year and spent the few days celebrating happily.

Jess and his family spent Easter not quite happy because compared to my celebration, they had to endure Ellie's and Brenda's vanity and hope to be viewed by many people in their opinion for them to be jealous and when Jess wanted Leslie to go to the church with them, his mother was reluctant as she did not want their family to be disgraced by her while my family would have preferred me to celebrate a festival with my friends in hope that I would not be as antisocial as my primary school years. Anyway, Jess goes to a chruch as he is a Christian while I don't go anywhere as I am a freethinker.


On the eve on CNY(chinese new year), i spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen helping my parents to cook. it took me 2hours just to get ready all the food like chicken wings, vegetables, steam fish, steam boat etc...
At 7pm sharp, all my relitives come to my grandparents house and they all brought with them ingredients for the steam boat. After eating we have a a small cell group talk where my grandfather talk about pslams 23. after a long tiring service(which last 1 hrs) we had YuShen. then we watched TV and chat till the countdown to CNY. I had a very enjoyable time then.
The next day, i woke up at 9am and got ready to go to church. the service lasted for 2 hrs and later, i went to my grandfathers house to Bai Nian. I wished him a happy new year and i got a AngBao ^.^ . When i saw all the goodies, i help my self to the ba kua and prawn crakers i ate 2 pieces of ba kua and more than 100 pieces of prawn craker. later at 7pm, we had dinner and my cousin came... we later started to play comupter and eventually got into a fight. We were stopped and since it was CNY we were let off with a warning.
The next day, i had a sharp headache and did not feel well. little did i realise i had fever and headache and just ate chocolates as my parents have some visitors. Soon, i realise i was sick and quickly took 2 panadol. Well, that is how i spent the next 3 days of CNY. On the bed T_T. I was banned from eating cny goodies. i vomited 5 times in total and my highest tempreture recorded was 38.6. So, that was how i celebrated my Chinese New Year.

Comparing how i celebrated my CNY wth jess on Chirstmas, jess got present i got ang bao jess did not fall sick i fell sick jess did not have reniun dinner i had reniun dinner. jess did not eat CNY goodies i ate lots of them. Unlike jess, i have visitors and got a fight over a game called "MapleStory". Thats all thanks for all your attention for reading my passage ^.^ ..........................






During the chinese new year holidays,i had spent them meaninglyfully.On the wednesday just before the actual holiday,lots of my fathers friends and my relatives came to spent the day at my house,my relatives even spent the night at my house,they went back during the last day of the chinese new year.During the weekends,i also went to visit some of my friends house.The thing that i like best is the hong bao that i receive ><.But i felt rather sad after my reletives left my house,the house was rather empty after their left,i think that my parents shall have felt the same way as me.Although it was rather tiring to get all the new year goods ready and get ready for the new year eve,but i think it was rather worth it.I was felt rather disappointed as the holidays has went pass in the flash of an eye.As for the money that i got,i will spent them wisely on useful items.Although the chinese new year holidays went pass so swiftly,i think that my family's relationship has also got better.HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

While the easter and christmas that jess spent is rather dull.He did not went to any relatives house and none of his friends came to his house either,as compared to how i spent my holidays,it was totally the opposite.
During the easter holidays,jess just went to the church with his family,luckily leslie volunteered to go with them as well,or else i wonder how lonely jess will be,as for me,i celebrated new year with my family and visited lots of my friends.Finnaly during the christmas eve, Jess did not receive much gifts only or a racing car set given by his father and a watercolour set given by leslie his best classmate,other than that,he did not really have a enjoyable christmas.I feel that Jess is not a fotunate kid as i am,i hope he can find another good friend as trustful as Leslie.

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