福、到｜gOOD fORTUNE, aRRIVES
福，倒了！
福，到了！
gOOD fORTUNE is uPSIDE dOWN!
gOOD fORTUNE aRRIVES!
猴年快樂！
恭喜發財！
hAPPY lUNAR nEW yEAR of mONKEY!
kUNG hEI fAT cHOI!
農曆新年雖是華夏文化裡最盛大的傳統節慶，惟各民族之間的習俗及禮儀未必盡是相同。
Although Lunar New Year is the biggest traditional festival in Great Chinese culture, the traditions and ceremonies may not be totally the same between the ethnicities.
相片：在下家鄉傳統的農曆日曆 －
是日為農曆乙未年己丑（十二）月辛丑（十一）日，公曆二零一六年一月廿日，及本年最後一個節氣 － 「大寒」。
Photo: tRADITIONAL dAILY aGRICULTURAL cALENDAR (also called as lUNAR calendar) from my hOME –
tODAY is: the 11th day of the 12th month of the 32th year Yiwei (traditional Agricultural calendar), 20th of January 2016 (gREGORIAN calendar), and the lAST sOLAR tERM of the year – “sEVERE cOLD”.
＊＊＊
曆｜cALENDAR
有朋友問道：「為什麼《除夜》一詩中會提到春天？」
A friend asked: “Why is the ‘sPRING’ mentioned in the poem ‘Old Year’s Day‘?”
這可要從我們的曆法說起。
Then let’s begin with our calendar.
曆
Calendar
華夏文化有自己的一套曆法－傳統農曆。
The Great Chinese culture has its own set of calendar – traditional Agricultural calendar.
歷史上記載，相傳黃帝（公元前二六九八年－二五九八年）制定了曆法，是現今傳統農曆的原形。古時，人民主要以務農為生，而為求生活平安順利，人民需要一套有用的曆法。因此，傳統的華夏曆法不只是計算日子，還可以提供天文、氣象、地理及風水等重要的科學資訊。同時，在這數千年間，歷代創造了超過一百部曆法，並經過不斷的改良、修正及薪傳，傳統農曆至今仍被重視及應用於生活之中。
According to the historical records and the legend, the Yellow Emperor (2698-2598 BC) invented calendar, which is the prototype of today’s traditional Agricultural calendar. In the ancient time, people mainly lived by farming, and in order to live safely and smoothly, people need a useful calendar. Therefore, the traditional Agricultural calendar is not just counting the days, also offers astronomical, meteorological, geographical and geomantic etc. important scientific information. Moreover, the past dynasties had created more than hundred sets of calendars in the thousands of years, and by continuously improving, correcting and passing on, the traditional Agricultural calendar is still respected and applied to life.
風、牆、風車｜wIND, wALL, wINDMILL
某天，在下意外地看到這張柏林 Volkshochschule的宣傳卡，卡上印道（德語）#1：
One day, I accidentally saw this Berlin Volkshochschule’s flyer, printed (German) #1 on the card:
“Wenn der Wind der Veränderung bläst, bauen einige Menschen Mauern und andere Windmühlen.” (Chinesisches Sprichwort)
翻譯成中文：
「當風向改變時，有的人會築牆，其他則築風車。」（華夏諺語）
Translated in English:
“When the winds of change blow, some build walls and others build windmills.”(Chinese proverb)
在下想了很久也想不出哪句諺語，即使向在下的華文老師及他的華文老師請教，他們也無法理解。加上風車不是由古代華夏發明，而是多年前由波斯傳入，其後於明朝（約十三至十四世紀）開始被歷史記載及普及使用。然而，於文化創作中，「風車」可不常被提及。於網路搜尋資料時，更看到不少懂中文的華人也問著同樣的問題－這句所謂諺語的出處及其真確性。（⋯⋯）
I have taken long time to think but still could not get this proverb, even though I have asked my Chinese teacher and his Chinese teacher regarding this issue, both of them cannot understand. Plus the windmill was not invented by the ancient Chinese, but was spread from Persia many years ago. Until Ming Dynasty (around 13th to 14th century), windmill started to be recorded historically and used universally. However, “windmill” was not often mentioned in cultural creation. And when researching on internet, there’s a lot of people who understand Chinese have asked the same questions – the provenance of this so-called proverb and its authenticity. (……)
正體字｜tRADITIONAL cHINESE
在下相信愛用正體字的人有著同樣的執著，更不想任由這些美麗的文字和華夏文化的命脈被一個錯誤如斯無情的摧毀。
If people ask me about learning Chinese. First of all, please start with Traditional Chinese.
I believe that Traditional Chinese characters lovers have the same strong will, and don’t just want to let these beautiful words and the lifeblood of Great Chinese culture be ruthlessly destroyed by a mistake.
A credited-unknown picture was spread earlier on internet, it’s telling how meaningful of Traditional Chinese characters (left) in a quite straight way:
