1.
Tet Offensive
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It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam. The name of the offensive comes from the Tết holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, the North Vietnamese launched a wave of attacks in the late night hours of 30 January in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones of South Vietnam. This early attack did not lead to defensive measures. The offensive was the largest military operation conducted by either side up to point in the war. During the Battle of Huế, intense fighting lasted for a month, during their occupation, the North Vietnamese executed thousands of people in the Massacre at Huế. Around the US combat base at Khe Sanh fighting continued for two more months. S, public support for the war declined and the U. S. sought negotiations to end the war. The term Tet offensive usually refers to the January–February 1968 offensive, there was a discrepancy, however, between MACV and the Central Intelligence Agencys order of battle estimates concerning the strength of Viet Cong guerrilla forces within South Vietnam. The MACV Combined Intelligence Center, on the hand, maintained that the number could be no more than 300,000. The agency responded that such a notion was ridiculous, since the militias were responsible for half of the casualties inflicted on U. S. forces. With the groups deadlocked, George Carver, CIA deputy director for Vietnamese affairs, was asked to mediate the dispute, George Allen, Carvers deputy, laid responsibility for the agencys capitulation at the feet of Richard Helms, the director of the CIA. He believed that it was a political problem, contravening the policy interest of the administration. During the second half of 1967 the administration had become alarmed by criticism and this trend was fueled not by a belief that the struggle was not worthwhile, but by mounting casualty figures, rising taxes, and the feeling that there was no end to the war in sight. A poll taken in November indicated that 55 percent wanted a war policy. But now that were there, lets win – or get out, under the leadership of National Security Advisor Walt W. Rostow, the news media then was inundated by a wave of effusive optimism. Every statistical indicator of progress, from kill ratios and body counts to village pacification, was fed to the press and we are beginning to win this struggle asserted Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey on NBCs Today show in mid-November. Upon their arrival, the two men bolstered the administrations claims of success, General Bruce Palmer, Jr. one of Westmorelands three Field Force commanders, claimed that the Viet Cong has been defeated and that He cant get food and he cant recruit. He has been forced to change his strategy from trying to control the people on the coast to trying to survive in the mountains, Westmoreland was even more emphatic in his assertions. At an address at the National Press Club on 21 November he reported that, as of the end of 1967, the communists were unable to mount a major offensive
2.
Vietnamese people
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The Vietnamese people or the Kinh people, are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population at the 1999 census. The earliest recorded name for the ancient Vietnamese people appears as Lạc, the word Việt is shortened from Bách Việt, a name used in ancient times. Written history knows the ancient Vietnamese people first simply as the Lạc or Lạc Việt, archaeological evidence of the Đông Sơn culture suggests that Bronze Age Vietnamese people were among the first to practice agriculture. DNA research shows that Vietnamese people are the oldest population in Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese show a close genetic relationship with other East Asians with the exception of seven unique markers. The Genographic Project by the National Geographic Society shows that the Vietnamese are intermediate between East and Southeast Asians, during another recent study the test subjects specifically showed more genetic variants in common with the Chinese than with the Japanese. The anonymous subjects of the study belong to the Vietnamese ethnic group, according to legend, the first Vietnamese descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the female heavenly angel Âu Cơ. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children and their eldest son ruled as the Hùng king. Archaeologists follow a path of stone tools from the Late Pleistocene across Java, Malaysia, Thailand and these stone tools are thought to be the first human tools used in Southeast Asia. Archaeologists believe that at time the Himalayas, a chain of mountains in northern Burma and China. During the Last Glacial Maximum, ocean levels dropped significantly and this resulted in the exposure of the shallow areas surrounding the coasts and islands of Southeast Asia - today known as the Sunda Shelf. It is generally thought that the exposed Sunda Shelf looked like a giant salt plain, later, when the glaciers melted, the Sunda Shelf again disappeared under water. Because it is a shallow body of water, it has always provided a safe area for traders and travelers in small boats to pass safely without the threat of high or choppy seas. In this way, the geography of the area has had a lot to do with the way in which cultures developed. As the map indicates, outside the Sunda Shelf are deep ocean basins which were not often crossed until heavier and wider Chinese vessels could traverse these deep and sometimes dangerous seas. As the glaciers melted and the seas near these coasts rose, traders and other travelers who wanted to migrate to areas, or perhaps to proselytize religion. For the next 4,000 years, until 8000 BCE, people moved across the mainland of Southeast Asia towards the Tonkin Delta. Eventually, the descendants of these migratory peoples entered the Neolithic Age, remains of these people and the Hoabinhian culture have been found in the Hòa Bình Caves along the Red River and in the Tonkin Delta
3.
Lion dance
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Lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a lions movements in a lion costume. The lion dance is performed during the Chinese New Year and other Chinese traditional, cultural. It may also be performed at important occasions such as business opening events, special celebrations or wedding ceremonies, the Chinese lion dance is sometimes mistakenly referred to as dragon dance. An easy way to tell the difference is that a lion is normally operated by just two dancers, while a dragon is longer and needs many people, also, in a lion dance, the performers faces are only seen occasionally, since they are inside the lion. In a dragon dance, the faces can be easily seen since the dragon is held on poles. Chinese lion dance fundamental movements can be found in most Chinese martial arts, there are two main forms of the Chinese lion dance, the Northern Lion and the Southern Lion. Versions of the dance are also found in Japan, Korea, Tibet. Another form of lion dance exists in Indonesian culture, but it may be of a different tradition and may be referred to as Singa Barong. However, lion is not native to China, and the Lion Dance therefore has been suggested to have originated outside of China from countries such as India or Persia, and introduced via Cental Asia. According to ethnomusicologist Laurence Picken, the Chinese word for lion itself, shi, there were different versions of the dance in the Tang Dynasty. In a later account, the 5 lions were described as each over 3 metres tall and each had 12 lion lads, by the eighth century, this lion dance had reached Japan. During the Song Dynasty the lion dance was performed in festivals. The Southern Lion is a development in the south of China originating in the Guangdong province. However it is likely that the Southern Lion of Guangzhou is an adaptation of the Northern Lion to local myths and characteristics, the two main types of lion dance in China are the Northern and Southern Lions. Other ethnic minorities groups in China may also have their own lion dances, Chinese lion dances usually involve two dancers but may also be performed by one. The larger lions manipulated by two persons may be referred to as lions, and those manipulated by one person little lions. The performances may also be divided into civil and martial styles. The civil style emphasizes the character and mimics and behaviour of the lion, while the style is focused on acrobatics
4.
Dragon dance
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Dragon dance is a form of traditional dance and performance in Chinese culture. Like the lion dance it is most often seen in festive celebrations, the dance is performed by a team of dancers who manipulate a long flexible figure of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the dragon. The dance team simulates the movements of this river spirit in a sinuous. The dragon dance is performed during Chinese New Year. Chinese dragons are a symbol of China, and they are believed to bring luck to people, therefore the longer the dragon in the dance. The dragons are believed to possess qualities that great power, dignity, fertility, wisdom. The appearance of a dragon is both fearsome and bold but it has a benevolent disposition, and it was an emblem to represent imperial authority, the movements in a performance traditionally symbolize historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity. During the Han Dynasty, different forms of the dance were described in ancient texts. The number of dragons, their length and colour, as well as the performers may vary according to the time of year, the dragon acts of the Han Dynasty were also mentioned in the Tang and Song Dynasty. Such dragon lanterns may also be carried and paraded by performers in the street during the Lantern festival at nighttime, a form of dragon dance from Tongliang County, which originated as snake totem worship, began during the Ming Dynasty and became popular in the Qing Dynasty. The number of different dragon dances has been put at over 700, the dragon is a long serpentine body formed of a number of sections on poles, with a dragon head and a tail. The dragon is assembled by joining the series of hoops on each section and attaching the ornamental head, the size and length of a dragon depends on the human power available, financial power, materials, skills and size of the field. A small organization cannot afford to run a very long dragon because it requires considerable power, great expenses. The normal length and size of the body recommended for the dragon is 34 metres and is divided into 9 major sections, the distance of each minor section is 35 cm apart, therefore, the body has 81 rings. Many may also be up to 15 sections long, and some dragons are as long as 46 sections. Sun Loong in Bendigo, Australia was, at the time it was made in 1970, much longer dragons have been created for one-off events. The world record for the longest dragon is 5,605 metres, historically the dragon dance may be performed in a variety of ways with different types and colors of dragon. Green is sometimes selected as a color of the dragon
5.
Veneration of the dead
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The veneration of the dead, including ones ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, the social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration is to cultivate kinship values, such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity, ancestor reverence is not the same as the worship of a deity or deities. In some Afro-diasporic cultures, ancestors are seen as being able to intercede on behalf of the living, as spirits who were once human themselves, they are seen as being better able to understand human needs than would a divine being. In other cultures, the purpose of ancestor veneration is not to ask for favors, some cultures believe that their ancestors actually need to be provided for by their descendants, and their practices include offerings of food and other provisions. Others do not believe that the ancestors are even aware of what their descendants do for them, most cultures who practice ancestor veneration do not call it ancestor worship. In English, the word usually refers to the reverent love. However, in cultures, this act of worship does not confer any belief that the departed ancestors have become some kind of deity. Rather, the act is a way to respect, honor, in this regard, many cultures and religions have similar practices. Some may visit the graves of their parents or other ancestors, leave flowers and pray to them in order to honor and remember them, however, this would not be considered as worshipping them since the term worship shows no such meaning. This is consistent with the meaning of the veneration in English. Although there is no accepted theory concerning the origins of ancestor veneration. Although some historians claim that ancient Egyptian society was a “death cult” because of its tombs and mummification rituals. The philosophy that “this world is but a vale of tears” and this was not to say that they were unacquainted with the harshness of life, rather, their ethos included a sense of continuity between this life and the next. Tombs were housing in the Hereafter and so they were constructed and decorated. Mummification was a way to preserve the corpse so the ka of the deceased could return to receive offerings of the things s/he enjoyed while alive, if mummification was not affordable, a “ka-statue” in the likeness of the deceased was carved for this purpose. The Blessed Dead were collectively called the akhu, or “shining ones” and they were described as “shining as gold in the belly of Nut and were indeed depicted as golden stars on the roofs of many tombs and temples. If the heart was in balance with the Feather of Maat, at this point only was the ka deemed worthy to be venerated by the living through rites and offerings
6.
Red envelope
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Outside of China, similar customs exist across parts of South East Asia and many other countries with a sizable ethnic Chinese population. In 2014, the Chinese mobile app WeChat popularized the distribution of red envelopes via mobile payments over the Internet, red envelopes are gifts presented at social and family gatherings such as weddings or holidays such as Chinese New Year. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits, the act of requesting red packets is normally called tao hongbao or yao lishi, and in the south of China, lai see. Red envelopes are usually given out by married couples to single people, regardless of age, or by older to younger ones during holidays and festivals. The amount of money contained in the envelope usually ends with a digit, in accordance with Chinese beliefs. The exception being the number 9 as it pronounciation of nine is homophonus to the long and is the largest digit. Still in some regions of China and in its diaspora community, at weddings, the amount offered is usually intended to cover the cost of the attendees as well as signify goodwill to the newlyweds. During the Chinese New Year, in Southern China, red envelopes are typically given by the married to the unmarried, students and future students in the sciences are typically rewarded handsomely. The amount of money is usually notes to avoid heavy coins and it is traditional to put brand new notes inside red envelopes and also to avoid opening the envelopes in front of the relatives out of courtesy. Red packets are also used to deliver payment for service to lion dance performers, religious practitioners, teachers. Adoption of WeChat Pay saw an increase following the launch. Analysts estimated that over 100 billion digital red envelopes would be sent over the New Year holiday in 2017, in China, during the Qin Dynasty, the elderly would thread coins with a red string. The money was referred to as money warding off evil spirits and was believed to protect the person of younger generation from sickness, red envelopes continue to be referred to by such names today. There are several legends as to how the red envelope came to be, one story depicts a village where a demon was terrorizing the people at night, in most cases children were the victims. The belief was that the demon was touching the childrens heads while they were asleep, as the theory continued to linger within the village, a worried couple decided to protect their new born child by praying to their god for protection. In return, their god sent eight fairies to protect the new born child from the demon, in order to trick the demon, the fairies disguised themselves as eight coins and were placed under the childs pillow at night to protect the child. At night the demon supposedly approached to touch the child on the head when the eight coins began to shine so bright that it prohibited the demon to see, frightened from what had just happened, the demon ran away in terror. After hearing this story, the villagers began spreading the word, at first the red envelopes were only given to children during the Spring Festival, but as time progress they were given to anyone
7.
Rooster (zodiac)
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The Rooster is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Rooster is represented by the Earthly Branch character 酉, the name is also translated into English as Cock or Chicken. Rooster is the only bird included in the Chinese zodiac, however, the Chinese term is more generic, as it applies to barnyard fowl of either sex. In the Tibetan zodiac and the Nepalese Gurung zodiac, the more generic bird is in place instead of the Rooster
8.
Pig (zodiac)
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The Pig is the twelfth and the last sign of the Earthly Branches. In the continuous Sexagenary cycle, every twelfth year corresponds to Hai, there are five types of Pigs, named after the Chinese elements. In order, they are, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, in the Japanese zodiac and Tibetan zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the boar. In the Dai zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the elephant, in the Gurung zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the deer. According to the myths, the Pig was the last to arrive when the Jade Emperor called for the great meeting, other sources said that Buddha called for a great meeting when he was about to leave the earth. Legend has it that just as the emperor was about to call it a day, the term lazy Pig is due here as the Pig got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast then fell asleep. After the nap, the Pig continued the race and was named the 12th, other sources say that given his very stout form, he was just too slow a swimmer, and thus he could not do anything against the other animals. The natural element of the Pig is water, thus it is commonly associated with emotions and intuitions. Yet, given that along with the elements, the animal zodiac also follows a cycle, however, the Pig is yin, and this only the negative aspects of the elements can be attached to them, thus only 5 kinds of Pigs are found in the zodiac. Thus, a person born on 9 February 1899 still belongs to the preceding zodiac while those born on 31 January 1900 already belongs to the following zodiac, aside from being assigned a year, the Pig is also assigned to govern a month in the Lunar Calendar. As the Lunar month begins on Spring, the Pig is assigned to the 10th month and this lunar month corresponds to the Gregorian calendar as beginning from 7 November and ending at 6 December. The first half of the month is called 立冬, literally, it means the start of winter. It begins when the Sun reaches the longitude of 225°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the longitude of 225°. In the Gregorian calendar, it begins around 7 November. The second half of the month is called 小雪, literally, the time of the Little Snow. It begins when the Sun reaches the longitude of 240°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the longitude of 240°
9.
Chinese New Year
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Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival in modern Mainland China, is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. Celebrations traditionally run from the preceding the first day, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first calendar month. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between 21 January and 20 February, in 2017, the first day of the Chinese New Year was on Saturday,28 January, initiating the year of the Rooster. The New Year festival is centuries old and gains significance because of several myths, traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors. Chinese New Year is considered a holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese New Year vary widely, often, the evening preceding Chinese New Years Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to clean the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune. Windows and doors are decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of fortune or happiness, wealth. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes, in about one third of the Mainland population, or 500 million Northerners, dumplings feature prominently in the meals celebrating the festival. It is one of the worlds most prominent and celebrated festivals, the lunisolar Chinese calendar determines the date of Chinese New Year. In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese Lunar New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February, the median date of Chinese New Years Day is lichun on 4 or 5 February, the solar term next to Dahan. In the Chinese calendar, winter solstice must occur in the 11th month, to determine whether a year has an intercalary month, one only needs to check whether Chinese New Year is within the month of January. The Gregorian Calendar dates for Chinese New Year from 1912 to 2101 are below, along with the years presiding animal zodiac, the traditional Chinese calendar follows a Metonic cycle, and returns to the same date in Gregorian calendar roughly. The names of the Earthly Branches have no English counterparts and are not the Chinese translations of the animals, alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, the elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are distinguished, Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire. These produce a cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936, many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian birth-year
10.
Korean New Year
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Korean New Year is the first day of the Korean lunar calendar. It is one of the most significant traditional Korean holidays, the celebration lasts three days, the day before Korean New Year day, Korean New Year day itself, and the day after Korean New Year day. Seollal generally refers to Eumnyeok Seollal, also known as Gujeong, Seollal may also refer to Yangnyeok Seollal, also known as Shinjeong. Korean New Year generally falls on the day of the new moon after winter solstice. In such a case, the New Year falls on the day of the new moon after the solstice. Korean New Year is generally the day as Chinese New Year except when new moon occurs between 15,00 UTC and 16,00 UTC. In such case, new moon happens on the day in Korea compared to China. In the Joseon Dynasty, all the government officials gathered in the Five Grand Palaces to make New Years greetings, Korean New Year is typically a family holiday. The Korean New Year is also known as Seollal, the three-day holiday is used by many to return to their hometowns to visit their parents and other relatives, where they perform an ancestral ritual called charye. The three days are the day of, the day before, and the after, in 2016,36 million South Koreans reportedly would be traveling to visit their families during the Korean New Year. Koreans not only travel within the country, but around the world, many Koreans travel from overseas to visit their families for this annual holiday. Since it is one of the few times families may be able to get together and catch up on one anothers lives, it is considered respectful, often, the family members first visit the elders, and this includes the grandparents and the parents. It is also considered respectful for people to visit their mothers-, including travel expense, preparation for this holiday is very costly. Gifts are usually given to members and new clothes are worn during the holiday. Traditional food is prepared for family members coming to visit for the holiday. Due to the demand, food prices are inflated during the month of Seollal. As a result, some people have chosen to forgo some traditions because they have become too expensive and these families prepare a modest ancestral rite only with necessary foods for Seollal. The government has started taking certain measures to stabilize and support ordinary peoples livelihood for Seollal holiday period
11.
Japanese New Year
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The Japanese New Year is an annual festival with its own customs. Since 1873, the official Japanese New Year has been celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar, on January 1 of each year, New Years Day. However, the celebration of the traditional Japanese New Year is still marked on the day as the contemporary Chinese, Korean. Prior to the Meiji period, the date of the Japanese New Year was based on the Chinese lunar calendar, as are the contemporary Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese New Years. However, in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar, Japanese people eat a selection of dishes during the New Year celebration called osechi-ryōri, typically shortened to osechi. There are many variations of osechi, and some foods eaten in one region are not eaten in other places on New Years Day, another popular dish is ozōni, a soup with mochi rice cake and other ingredients that differ based on various regions of Japan. Today, sashimi and sushi are often eaten, as well as non-Japanese foods, to let the overworked stomach rest, seven-herb rice soup is prepared on the seventh day of January, a day known as jinjitsu. Another custom is to create and eat rice cakes, boiled sticky rice is put into a wooden bucket-like container usu and patted with water by one person while another person hits it with a large wooden mallet. Mashing the rice, it forms a sticky white dumpling and this is made before New Years Day and eaten during the beginning of January. Mochi is made into a New Years decoration called kagami mochi, the name daidai is supposed to be auspicious since it means several generations. A major attraction is The Watched Night bell, in Tokyo, Japanese believe that the ringing of bells can rid their sins during the previous year. The bell is rung 107 times on 31st and once past midnight and it is also very common to eat buckwheat noodles called toshikoshi soba on the New Years Eve. The end of December and the beginning of January are the busiest times for the Japanese post offices, the Japanese have a custom of sending New Years Day postcards to their friends and relatives, similar to the Western custom of sending Christmas cards. Their original purpose was to give your faraway friends and relatives tidings of yourself, in other words, this custom existed for people to tell others whom they did not often meet that they were alive and well. Japanese people send these postcards so that they arrive on 1 January, the post office guarantees to deliver the greeting postcards on 1 January if they are posted within a time limit, from mid-December to near the end of the month and are marked with the word nengajō. To deliver these cards on time, the post office usually hires students part-time to help deliver the letters and it is customary not to send these postcards when one has had a death in the family during the year. In this case, a member sends a simple postcard called mochū hagaki to inform friends and relatives they should not send New Years cards. People get their nengajō from many sources, most of these have the Chinese zodiac sign of the New Year as their design, or conventional greetings, or both
12.
Tsagaan Sar
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The Mongolian Lunar New Year, commonly known as Tsagaan Sar, is the first day of the year according to the Mongolian lunisolar calendar. The festival of the Lunar New Year is celebrated by the Mongols along with the people of the Arctic, the White Moon festival is celebrated on the first through third days of the first lunar month. Tsagaan Sar is one of the most important Mongolian holidays, the customs of Tsagaan Sar is much different depending on the region. In Mongolia around the New Year for example, families burn candles at the altar symbolizing Buddhist enlightenment, also people greet each other with holiday-specific greetings such as Амар байна уу. meaning Are you living peacefully. Mongols also visit friends and family on this day and exchange gifts, a typical Mongol family will meet in the home dwelling of the eldest in the family. Many people will be dressed in full garment of national Mongol costumes, when greeting their elders during the White Moon festival, Mongols perform the zolgokh greeting, grasping them by their elbows to show support for them. The eldest receives greetings from each member of the family except for his/her spouse, during the greeting ceremony, family members hold long, typically blue, silk cloths called a khadag. After the ceremony, the family eats sheeps tail, mutton, rice with curds, dairy products. It is also typical to drink airag and exchange gifts, the day before Tsagaan Sar is called Bituun, the name of the lunar phase of a new or dark moon. The lunar phases are Bituun, Shined, Tergel, and Huuchid, on the Bituun day, people thoroughly clean around home, herders also clean the livestock barns and shades, to meet the New Year fresh. In the evening, families gather together—usually immediate family, in contrast to the large feast gatherings of White Moon day — and see out the old year eating dairy products, traditionally, Mongolians settle all issues and repay all debts from the old year by this day. Depending on the region, the food is much different, the Mongol calendar in the Tegus Buyantu system is a lunisolar calendar. The Tegus Buyantu astrology was developed by Mongol high priest Luvsandanzanjantsan, Tsagaan Sar is celebrated on the first through third days of the first lunar month
13.
Losar
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Losar is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various dates depending on location and tradition, the holiday is a new years festival, celebrated on the first day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar, which corresponds to a date in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. The variation of the festival in Nepal is called Lhochhar and is observed about eight weeks earlier than the Tibetan Losar, Losar predates the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet and has its roots in a winter incense-burning custom of the Bon religion. During the reign of the ninth Tibetan king, Pude Gungyal, on the first day of Losar, a beverage called changkol is made from chhaang. The second day of Losar is known as Kings Losar, Losar is traditionally preceded by the five-day practice of Vajrakilaya. Originally, ancient celebrations of Losar occurred solely on the winter solstice, after the Dalai Lama was exiled, many monasteries were dissolved during the Cultural Revolution. Since that time, Tibetan Buddhism practice in Tibet has been somewhat restored, debts are settled, quarrels are resolved, new clothes are acquired, and special foods such as kapse are made. A favorite drink is chang which is served warm, because the words sheeps head and beginning of the year sound similar in Tibetan, it is customary to fashion a sheeps head from colored butter as a decoration. Another traditional decoration that symbolizes a good harvest is the phyemar and this bucket is filled with zanba and barley seeds, then decorated with barley ears and colored butter. Losar customs in Bhutan are similar to, but distinct from, traditional foods consumed on the occasion include sugarcane and green bananas, which are considered auspicious. In Bhutan, picnicking, dancing, singing, dart-playing, archery, and the giving of offerings are all traditions
14.
Culture of Vietnam
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The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the ancient Bronze age Đông Sơn culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors. Due to a millennium of Chinese rule, Vietnam was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in terms of politics, government, Confucian social and moral ethics, Vietnam is considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere. During the French colonial period, Vietnamese culture absorbed various influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of the Latin alphabet. Prior to this, Vietnamese had used both Chinese characters and a script called Chữ nôm which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese words. In the socialist era, the life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media. For many decades, foreign influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has seen a greater re-exposure to Asian, European and American culture, important symbols present in Vietnamese culture include dragons, turtles, lotuses and bamboo. In terms of levels of organization, the two most important units are làng and nước. The Vietnamese usually say that làng goes hand in hand with nước, intermediate organizational units are quận, xã and tỉnh Kinship plays an important role in Vietnam. Unlike Western cultures emphasis on individualism, Eastern culture values the roles of family, comparing with Eastern cultures, Chinese culture values family over clan while Vietnamese culture values clan over family. Each clan has a patriarch, clan altar, and death commemorations attended by the whole clan, most inhabitants are related by blood. That fact is still seen in names such as Đặng Xá, Châu Xá, Lê Xá. In the Western highlands the tradition of families in a clan residing in a longhouse is still popular. In the majority of rural Vietnam today, one can see three or four generations living under one roof. The traditional Vietnamese wedding is one of the most important of traditional Vietnamese occasions, in the past, both men and women were expected to be married at young ages. Marriages were generally arranged by the parents and extended family, with the children having limited say in the matter, in modern Vietnam, this has changed as people freely choose their own marriage partners. Generally there are two ceremonies, Lễ Đám Hỏi, Some time before the wedding, the groom and his family visit the bride. The quantity of boxes must be an odd number, the presents include areca nuts, betel leaves, tea, cake, fruits, wine, other various delicacies and money
15.
Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary
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Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary are words and morphemes of the Vietnamese language borrowed from Chinese. They comprise about a third of the Vietnamese lexicon, and may account for as much as 60% of the used in formal texts. Together with Sino-Korean and Sino-Japanese vocabularies, Sino-Vietnamese has been used in the reconstruction of the categories of Middle Chinese. Samuel Martin grouped the three together as Sino-xenic, as a result of a thousand years of Chinese control, and a further thousand years of strong Chinese influence, two main layers of Chinese vocabulary have been borrowed into Vietnamese. These layers were first systematically studied by Wang Li, Middle Chinese and Vietnamese are of analytic type, with almost all morphemes monosyllabic and lacking inflection. The phonological structure of their syllables is also similar, the Old Sino-Vietnamese layer was introduced after the Chinese conquest of the kingdom of Nanyue, including the northern part of Vietnam, in 111 BC. The influence of the Chinese language was felt during the Eastern Han period, due to increased Chinese immigration. This layer consists of roughly 400 words, which have fully assimilated and are treated by Vietnamese speakers as native words. The much more extensive Sino-Vietnamese proper was introduced with Chinese rhyme dictionaries such as the Qieyun in the late Tang dynasty, Vietnamese scholars used a systematic rendering of Middle Chinese within the phonology of Vietnamese to derive consistent pronunciations for the entire Chinese lexicon. Around 3,000 words entered Vietnamese over this period, most scholars now follow André-Georges Haudricourt in assigning these words to the Old Sino-Vietnamese layer. Until the early 20th century, Literary Chinese was the language of administration and scholarship, not only in China, as contact with the West grew, Western works were translated into Chinese and read by the literati. In order to translate words for new concepts scholars in these countries coined new compounds formed from Chinese morphemes, the local readings of these compounds were readily adopted into local vernaculars, including Vietnamese. Often, multiple compounds for the concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged. A fairly large amount of Sino-Vietnamese have meanings that differ significantly from their usage in other Sinitic vocabularies, for example, bác sĩ is widely used with the meaning physician, while it means doctor or Ph. D. Interestingly, club became 俱樂部 kurabu in Japan, was borrowed to China, then to Vietnam, is read as câu lạc bộ, and abbreviated CLB, which can be an abbreviation for club. Some Sino-Vietnamese words are entirely invented by the Vietnamese and are not used in Chinese, such as linh mục for pastor, or giả kim thuật, others are no longer used in modern Chinese or have other meanings. Because Sino-Vietnamese provides a Vietnamese form for almost all Chinese characters, for example, the name of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping consists of the Chinese characters 習近平. Applying a Sino-Vietnamese reading to each character in turn yields a Vietnamese name Tập Cận Bình, Western names, approximated in Chinese, were further garbled in Vietnamese pronunciations
16.
Lunisolar calendar
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A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. As with all calendars which divide the year into months there is a requirement that the year have a whole number of months. In this case ordinary years consist of twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, also, some of the ancient pre-Islamic calendars in south Arabia followed a lunisolar system. The Chinese, Coligny and Hebrew lunisolar calendars track more or less the tropical year whereas the Buddhist, therefore, the first three give an idea of the seasons whereas the last two give an idea of the position among the constellations of the full moon. The Tibetan calendar was influenced by both the Chinese and Hindu calendars, the Germanic peoples also used a lunisolar calendar before their conversion to Christianity. The Metonic cycle, used in the Hebrew calendar and the Julian and Gregorian ecclesiastical calendars, the classic Metonic cycle can be reproduced by assigning an initial epact value of 1 to the last year of the cycle and incrementing by 11 each year. Between the last year of one cycle and the first year of the next the increment is 12 and this adjustment, the saltus lunae, causes the epacts to repeat every 19 years. When the epact goes above 29 an intercalary month is added and 30 is subtracted, the intercalary years are numbers 3,6,8,11,14,17 and 19. Both the Hebrew calendar and the Julian calendar use this sequence, the Buddhist and Hebrew calendars restrict the leap month to a single month of the year, the number of common months between leap months is, therefore, usually 36, but occasionally only 24 months. An alternative way of dealing with the fact that a year does not contain an integer number of months is by including uncounted time in the year that does not belong to any month. Some Coast Salish peoples used a calendar of this kind, for instance, the Chehalis began their count of lunar months from the arrival of spawning chinook salmon, and counted 10 months, leaving an uncounted period until the next chinook salmon run. The Gregorian calendar has a calendar, which is used to determine the date of Easter. The rules are in the Computus, Hebrew calendar Jain calendar Hindu calendar Computus Easter rule for Julian and Gregorian calendars. Lunisolar calendar year 2014 Lunisolar Calendar Calendar studies Model of lunisolar calendar based on observation of the sun and moon position
17.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
18.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
19.
New moon
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In astronomy, new moon is the first phase of the Moon, when it orbits not seen from the Earth, the moment when the Moon and the Sun have the same ecliptical longitude. The Moon is not visible at this time except when it is seen in silhouette during a solar eclipse when it is illuminated by earthshine, see the article on phases of the Moon for further details. A lunation or synodic month is the time from one new moon to the next. In the J2000.0 epoch, the length of a lunation is 29.530588 days. However, the length of any one month can vary from 29.26 to 29.80 days due to the perturbing effects of the Suns gravity on the Moons eccentric orbit. In a lunar calendar, each corresponds to a lunation. Each lunar cycle can be assigned a unique Lunation Number to identify it, the length of a lunation is about 29.53 days. Its precise duration is linked to many phenomena in nature, such as the variation between spring and neap tides, an approximate formula to compute the mean moments of new moon for successive months is, d =5.597661 +29. For all new moons between 1601 and 2401, the difference is 0.592 days = 14h13m in either direction. The duration of a lunation varies in this period between 29.272 and 29.833 days, i. e. −0. 259d = 6h12m shorter, or +0. 302d = 7h15m longer than average. This range is smaller than the difference between mean and true conjunction, because during one lunation the periodic terms cannot all change to their maximum opposite value, see the article on the full moon cycle for a fairly simple method to compute the moment of new moon more accurately. These are now outdated, Chapront et al. published improved parameters, quadratic term, In ELP2000–85, D has a quadratic term of −5. 8681T2, expressed in lunations N, this yields a correction of +87. 403×10–12N2 days to the time of conjunction. The term includes a contribution of 0. 5×. The most current estimate from Lunar Laser Ranging for the acceleration is, therefore, the new quadratic term of D is = -6. 8498T2. Indeed, the polynomial provided by Chapront et alii provides the same value and this translates to a correction of +14. 622×10−12N2 days to the time of conjunction, the quadratic term now is, +102. 026×10−12N2 days. For UT, analysis of historical observations shows that ΔT has an increase of +31 s/cy2. Converted to days and lunations, the correction from ET to UT becomes, the theoretical tidal contribution to ΔT is about +42 s/cy2 the smaller observed value is thought to be mostly due to changes in the shape of the Earth. Because the discrepancy is not fully explained, uncertainty of our prediction of UT may be as large as the difference between these values,11 s/cy2
20.
Nuclear family
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A nuclear family, elementary family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of two parents and their children. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, to the extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a couple, the nuclear family may have any number of children. Family structures of a couple and their children were present in Western Europe and New England in the 17th century, influenced by church. With the emergence of proto-industrialization and early capitalism, the family became a financially viable social unit. The term nuclear family first appeared in the twentieth century. Little is known about how parental behavior and identification processes work, historians have found that nuclear families have been a primary arrangement in England since the 13th century. In England multi-generational households were uncommon because young adults would save money to move out. Sociologist Brigitte Berger argued, the nuclear family had to be flexible and mobile as it searched for opportunity and property. Forced to rely on their own ingenuity, its members also needed to plan for the future and develop bourgeois habits of work, berge also mentions that this could be one of the reasons why the Industrial Revolution begun in England, and other Northwest European countries. As a fertility factor, single family households generally have a higher number of children than co-operative living arrangements according to studies from both the Western world and India. There have been studies done that shows a difference in the number of children wanted per household according to where they live, families that live in rural areas wanted to have more kids than families in urban areas. A study done in Japan between October 2011 and February 2012 further researched the affect of are of residence on mean desired number of children. Researchers of the came to the conclusion that the women living in rural areas with larger families were more likely to want more children. Merriam-Webster dates the term back to 1947, while the Oxford English Dictionary has a reference to the term from 1925, in its most common usage, the term nuclear family refers to a household consisting of a father, a mother and their children all in one household dwelling. George Murdock, an observer of families, offered a description, The family is a social group characterized by common residence. It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. Many individuals are part of two families in their lives, the family of origin in which they are offspring
21.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
22.
Gambling
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Gambling is the wagering of money or something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning money or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present, consideration, chance and prize, the term gaming in this context typically refers to instances in which the activity has been specifically permitted by law. However, this distinction is not universally observed in the English-speaking world, for instance, in the United Kingdom, the regulator of gambling activities is called the Gambling Commission. Gambling is also an international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated $335 billion in 2009. In other forms, gambling can be conducted with materials which have a value, many popular games played in modern casinos originate from Europe and China. Games such as craps, baccarat, roulette, and blackjack originate from different areas of Europe, a version of keno, an ancient Chinese lottery game, is played in casinos around the world. In addition, pai gow poker, a hybrid between pai gow and poker is also played, many jurisdictions, local as well as national, either ban gambling or heavily control it by licensing the vendors. Such regulation generally leads to gambling tourism and illegal gambling in the areas where it is not allowed, there is generally legislation requiring that the odds in gaming devices are statistically random, to prevent manufacturers from making some high-payoff results impossible. Since these high-payoffs have very low probability, a bias can quite easily be missed unless the odds are checked carefully. Most jurisdictions that allow gambling require participants to be above a certain age, in some jurisdictions, the gambling age differs depending on the type of gambling. For example, in many American states one must be over 21 to enter a casino, E. g. Nonetheless, both insurance and gambling contracts are typically considered aleatory contracts under most legal systems, though they are subject to different types of regulation. Under common law, particularly English Law, a contract may not give a casino bona fide purchaser status. For case law on recovery of gambling losses where the loser had stolen the funds see Rights of owner of money as against one who won it in gambling transaction from thief. This was a plot point in a Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Singing Skirt. Religious perspectives on gambling have been mixed, ancient Hindu poems like the Gamblers Lament and the Mahabharata testify to the popularity of gambling among ancient Indians. However, the text Arthashastra recommends taxation and control of gambling, ancient Jewish authorities frowned on gambling, even disqualifying professional gamblers from testifying in court. For these social and religious reasons, most legal jurisdictions limit gambling, in at least one case, the same bishop opposing a casino has sold land to be used for its construction. Although different interpretations of law exist in the Muslim world
23.
Dragon (zodiac)
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The Dragon is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dragon is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 辰 and it has been proposed by one academic researcher that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions, it may have symbolized the star Antares. In the Buddhist calendar used in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, in the Gurung zodiac, the Dragon is replaced by the eagle. Among all the 12 animal signs, the Monkey has the most tacit understanding with the Dragon people, the cunning Rat can be good partner with the Dragon to make something big. The Dragon people can live happily with the Snake, for the Snake can prevent the Dragon from behaving outrageously. People under the signs of the Tiger, Rooster, Horse, Goat, Rabbit and Pig like to be friends with the Dragon, as they admire the Dragons beautiful bearing, also, two Dragons can get along well with each other. However, the relationship between the Dragon and the Ox people are usually tense, because both of them are very majestic, the people who the Dragon feels headaches with the most is the Dog. They feel uncomfortable due to the Dog peoples close guard, Chinese astrology Chinese dragon Chinese zodiac Burmese zodiac Chinese New Year Dragons in mythology
24.
Ho Chi Minh City
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Ho Chi Minh City, formerly named and still often known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam by population. It was once known as Prey Nokor prior to annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century, under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam 1955–75. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh, the citys population is expected to grow to 13.9 million by 2025. Ho Chi Minh City has gone by different names during its history, reflecting settlement by different ethnic. In the 1690s, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the Mekong Delta and its surroundings. Control of the city and the passed to the Vietnamese. Immediately after the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975, a provisional government renamed the city after Hồ Chí Minh, even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn/Saigon remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora. In particular, Sài Gòn is still used to refer to District 1. This name may refer to the many plants that the Khmer people had planted around Prey Nokor. It may also refer to the dense and tall forest that existed around the city. Other proposed etymologies draw parallels from Tai-Ngon, the Cantonese name of Cholon, which means embankment, and Vietnamese Sai Côn, a translation of the Khmer Prey Nokor. Prey means forest or jungle, and nokor is a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin meaning city or kingdom, the current official name, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, adopted in 1976 and abbreviated Tp. HCM, is translated as Ho Chi Minh City, abbreviated HCMC, the name commemorates Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam. This name, though not his name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines a common Vietnamese surname with a name meaning enlightened will, in essence. Ho Chi Minh City began as a fishing village likely known as Prey Nokor, Forest City, or perhaps Preah Reach Nokor which. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese. In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn civil war in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor and to set up a custom house there
25.
New Year tree
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New Year trees are decorated trees similar to Christmas trees that are displayed to specifically celebrate the New Year. They should not be confused with the practice of leaving up a Christmas tree until after New Years Day, New Year trees are common in various cultures and nations, chiefly the former Soviet Union, Turkey, and Vietnam. Russian and Turkish New Year trees are of the varieties as those used for Christmas trees. The decorations are the same as for Christmas trees, while Russian and Turkish North Americans purchasing a tree after Christmas when prices have plummeted might enjoy notable savings, most do not wait beyond Christmas to buy their trees. The tradition of installing and decorating a Ёлка for Christmas dates back to the 17th century when Peter the Great imported the practice as a result of his travels in Europe. However, in Imperial Russia Yolka were banned beginning in 1916 by the Synod as a tradition originating in Germany, with the Christmas tree being prohibited in accordance with Soviet anti-religious legislation, people supplanted the former Christmas custom with New Years trees. In his letter, Postyshev wrote, In the pre-revolutionary era the bourgeoisie, children of the working classes looked on with envy through the windows at the gleaming tree adorned with colored lights and the children of the rich playing around it. Why do our schools, orphanages, nurseries, children’s clubs, because some “left-leaning” exaggerators decried this pastime as a bourgeois childrens indulgence. It is time to put an end to this condemnation of the tree. The Young Pioneer scout leaders are called upon to organize holiday celebrations for the children that feature New Year trees, in schools, orphanages, clubs, cinemas, and theaters – children’s New Year trees should be everywhere. There should not be a village or community farm where the local board, along with members of the Komsomol. City councils, chairmen of district executive committees, village councils and our children will be grateful to us for giving them back the New Year tree. Im sure the Komsomolians will take an active part in this enterprise. So, lets organize a New Year celebration for kids and arrange a good Soviet New Year tree in all our cities and rural villages. ”In 1937, an invitation to the Yolka at the Palace of Unions became a matter of honour for Soviet children. After the dissolution of the USSR, religious freedom was allowed, a Turkish New Year tree, in Turkish Yılbaşı Ağacı, looks the same as a Christmas tree with Christmas ornaments. It is called a New Year tree because it is specific to the New Year and, with about 95% of Turkeys population Muslim, most Turks do not celebrate Christmas. After the modernisation of Turkey, the Islamic calendar and the calendar were replaced by the Gregorian calendar. The celebrations became popular in Turkey and Christmas trees were brought into the country as New Year trees, since then, the custom of setting up a tree for the New Year is a traditional event in Turkey
26.
Bamboo
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The bamboos /bæmˈbuː/ are evergreen perennial flowering plants in the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent, the absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering. Bamboos include some of the plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm within a 24-hour period, giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are of economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food source. Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete. The word bamboo comes from the Kannada term bambu, which was introduced to English through Indonesian, the subfamily in its current sense belongs to the BOP clade of grasses, where it is sister to the Pooideae. The woody bamboos do not form a group, instead. Altogether, more than 1,400 species are placed in 115 genera, most bamboo are native to warm and moist tropical and warm temperate climates. However, many species are found in climates, from hot tropical regions to cool mountainous regions. In the Asia-Pacific region they occur across East Asia, from 50°N latitude in Sakhalin south to Northern Australia, and west to India, China, Japan, Korea, India, and Australia, all have several endemic populations. They also occur in numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, confined to tropical areas, from southern Senegal in the north to southern Mozambique. Bamboo is also native through Central America and Mexico, northward into the Southeastern United States, canada and continental Europe is not known to have any native species of bamboo. Recently, some attempts have been made to grow bamboo on a basis in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa. In the United States, several companies are growing, harvesting, bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, with reported growth rates up to 91 cm in 24 hours. Primarily growing in regions of warmer climates during the late Cretaceous period, some of the largest timber bamboo can grow over 30 m tall, and be as large as 25–30 cm in diameter. However, the range for mature bamboo is species-dependent, with the smallest bamboos reaching only several inches high at maturity. A typical height range that would cover many of the common bamboos grown in the United States is 4. 6–12 m, depending on species
27.
Origami
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Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word origami is used as a term for all folding practices. The goal is to transform a flat square of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts, although cutting is more characteristic of Chinese papercrafts. The small number of basic origami folds can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs, the best-known origami model is the Japanese paper crane. In general, these begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be of different colors, prints. Traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo period, has often been less strict about these conventions, the principles of origami are also used in stents, packaging and other engineering applications. Distinct paperfolding traditions arose in Europe, China, and Japan which have been well-documented by historians and these seem to have been mostly separate traditions, until the 20th century. In China, traditional funerals include the burning of folded paper. The practice of burning paper representations instead of wood or clay replicas dates from the Sung Dynasty. In Japan, the earliest unambiguous reference to a model is in a short poem by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 which mentions a traditional butterfly design used during Shinto weddings. Folding filled some ceremonial functions in Edo period Japanese culture, noshi were attached to gifts and this developed into a form of entertainment, the first two instructional books published in Japan are clearly recreational. In Europe, there was a genre of napkin-folding, which flourished during the 17th and 18th centuries. When Japan opened its borders in the 1860s, as part of a strategy, they imported Froebels Kindergarten system—and with it. This included the ban on cuts, and the shape of a bicolored square. These ideas, and some of the European folding repertoire, were integrated into the Japanese tradition, before this, traditional Japanese sources use a variety of starting shapes, often had cuts, and if they had color or markings, these were added after the model was folded. In the early 1900s, Akira Yoshizawa, Kosho Uchiyama, Akira Yoshizawa in particular was responsible for a number of innovations, such as wet-folding and the Yoshizawa–Randlett diagramming system, and his work inspired a renaissance of the art form. During the 1980s a number of folders started systematically studying the properties of folded forms
28.
Ochna integerrima
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Ochna integerrima, popularly called the Vietnamese mickey-mouse plant, is a tree species of the family Ochnaceae. The yellow flowers of this plant make it popular in southern Vietnam. In Vietnamese, the variety of O. integerrima whose flowers have five petals is called mai vàng, in Cambodia, it is called angkea, angkeasel, angkea loeung អង្គាលឿង or kongkea គង្គា. Ochna integerrima is the flower of Mukdahan province, Thailand
29.
Peach
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The peach is a deciduous tree native to the region of Northwest China between the Tarim Basin and the north slopes of the Kunlun Shan mountains, where it was first domesticated and cultivated. It bears an edible fruit called a peach or a nectarine. The specific epithet refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia. It belongs to the genus Prunus which includes the cherry, apricot, almond and plum, the peach is classified with the almond in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated seed shell. Peach and nectarines are the species, even though they are regarded commercially as different fruits. The Peoples Republic of China is the worlds largest producer of peaches, Prunus persica grows to 4–10 m tall and 6 in. in diameter. The leaves are lanceolate, 7–16 cm long, 2–3 cm broad, the flowers are produced in early spring before the leaves, they are solitary or paired,2. 5–3 cm diameter, pink, with five petals. The fruit has yellow or whitish flesh, an aroma. The flesh is very delicate and easily bruised in some cultivars, the single, large seed is red-brown, oval shaped, approximately 1. 3–2 cm long, and is surrounded by a wood-like husk. Peaches, along with cherries, plums and apricots, are stone fruits, there are various heirloom varieties, including the Indian peach, which arrives in the latter part of the summer. Cultivated peaches are divided into clingstones and freestones, depending on whether the flesh sticks to the stone or not, Peaches with white flesh typically are very sweet with little acidity, while yellow-fleshed peaches typically have an acidic tang coupled with sweetness, though this also varies greatly. Both colors often have red on their skin. The scientific name persica, along with the word peach itself, the Ancient Romans referred to the peach as malum persicum Persian apple, later becoming French pêche, hence the English peach. The scientific name, Prunus persica, literally means Persian plum, fossil endocarps with characteristics indistinguishable from those of modern peaches have been recovered from late Pliocene deposits in Kunming, dating to 2.6 million years ago. In the absence of evidence that the plants were in other ways identical to the modern peach, until recently, it was believed that the cultivation started circa 2000 BC. Nevertheless, the recent evidence indicates that domestication occurred as early as 6000 BC in Zhejiang Province of China, the oldest archaeological peach stones are from the Kuahuqiao site. Archaeologists point at the Yangzi River valley as the place where the selection for favorable peach varieties likely took place. Peaches were mentioned in Chinese writings as far back as the 10th century BC and were a fruit of kings
30.
Prunus mume
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Prunus mume is an Asian tree species classified in the Armeniaca section of the genus Prunus subgenus Prunus. Its common names include Chinese plum and Japanese apricot, the flower is usually called plum blossom. This distinct tree species is related to both the plum and apricot trees, although generally referred to as a plum in English, it is more closely related to the apricot. In Chinese, Japanese and Korean cooking, the fruit of the tree is used in juices, as a flavouring for alcohol, as a pickle and it is also used in traditional medicine. The trees flowering in winter and early spring is highly regarded as a seasonal symbol. Prunus mume originated in the south of mainland China around the Yangtze River and was introduced to Japan, Korea, Taiwan. It can be found in forests, stream sides, forested slopes along trails and mountains, sometimes at altitudes up to 1, 700–3,100 metres. Prunus mume is a tree that starts to flower in mid-winter. It can grow to 4–10 metres tall, the flowers are 2–2.5 centimetres in diameter and have a strong fragrant scent. They have colors in varying shades of white, pink, the leaves appear shortly after the petals fall, are oval-shaped with a pointed tip, and are 4–8 cm long and 2. 5–5 cm wide. The fruit ripens in summer, around June and July in East Asia, and coincides with the rainy season of East Asia. The drupe is 2–3 centimetres in diameter with a running from the stalk to the tip. The skin turns yellow, sometimes with a red blush, as it ripens, the tree is cultivated for its fruit and flowers. The plant is known by a number of different names in English, including Chinese plum, an alternative name is ume, from Japanese, or mume, from the scientific name. Another alternative name is mei, from the Chinese name, the flower is known as the meihua in Chinese, which came to be translated as plum blossom or sometimes as flowering plum. The term winter plum may be used too, specifically with regard to the depiction of the flower with its early blooming in Chinese painting, in Chinese it is called méi and the fruit is called méizi. The Japanese name is ume, while the Korean name is maesil, the Japanese and Korean terms derive from Middle Chinese, in which the pronunciation is thought to have been muəi. The Vietnamese name is mai or mơ, ornamental tree varieties and cultivars of P. mume have been cultivated for planting in various gardens throughout East Asia, and for cut blossoming branches used in flower arrangements
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Kumquat
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Kumquats are a group of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae. They were previously classified as forming the now historical genus Fortunella, the edible fruit closely resembles that of the orange, but it is much smaller, being approximately the size and shape of a large olive. Kumquat is a fairly cold-hardy citrus, the English name kumquat derives from the Cantonese 金橘, literally golden orange or golden tangerine. Though loquats are not botanically related to kumquats, the terms derive from the same Chinese word for orange, the kumquat plant is native to south Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. The earliest historical reference to kumquats appears in literature of China in the 12th century and they have long been cultivated in India, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and southeast Asia. They were introduced to Europe in 1846 by Robert Fortune, collector for the London Horticultural Society and they are slow-growing evergreen shrubs or short trees, from 2.5 to 4.5 meters tall, with dense branches, sometimes bearing small thorns. The leaves are glossy green, and the flowers are white, similar to other citrus flowers. Depending on size, the tree can produce hundreds or even thousands of fruits each year. When the kumquats are divided into species, the name Fortunella japonica is retained by this group. The round kumquat also called Marumi kumquat or Morgani kumquat, is an evergreen tree, the round Hawaiian varietal, the Meiwa kumquat, is eaten raw. The fruit is small and usually round but can be oval shaped, the peel has a sweet flavor but the fruit has a sour center. The fruit can be eaten cooked but is used to make marmalades and jellies. It is grown as a plant and can be used in bonsai. The plant symbolizes good luck in China and other Asian countries, round kumquats are more commonly cultivated than other species due to their cold tolerance. When the kumquats are divided into species, the name Fortunella margarita is used for this group. The oval kumquat is also called the Nagami kumquat, the unusual feature of the Nagami kumquat is in the eating of the fruit. The fruit is eaten whole, skin and all, the inside is still quite sour, but the skin has the sweeter flavour, when eaten together it produces an unusual tart-sweet, refreshing flavour. Fruit ripens mid to late winter and always crops very heavily, the tree is smaller growing and dwarf in nature, making it ideal for pots and has even been used in bonsai
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Bonsai
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Bonsai is a Japanese art form using trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, the Japanese tradition dates back over a thousand years. Bonsai is a Japanese pronunciation of the earlier Chinese term penzai, the word bonsai is often used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots. The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation and the pleasant exercise of effort, by contrast with other plant cultivation practices, bonsai is not intended for production of food or for medicine. Instead, bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more trees growing in a container. A bonsai is created beginning with a specimen of source material and this may be a cutting, seedling, or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as leaves or needles. The source specimen is shaped to be small and to meet the aesthetic standards of bonsai. When the candidate bonsai nears its planned final size it is planted in a pot, usually one designed for bonsai display in one of a few accepted shapes. From that point forward, its growth is restricted by the pot environment, throughout the year, the bonsai is shaped to limit growth, redistribute foliar vigor to areas requiring further development, and meet the artists detailed design. Bonsai does not require genetically dwarfed trees, but rather depends on growing trees from regular stock. Bonsai uses cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation, the Japanese art of bonsai originated from the Chinese practice of penjing. From the 6th century onward, Imperial embassy personnel and Buddhist students from Japan visited and returned from mainland China and they brought back many Chinese ideas and goods, including container plantings. Over time, these container plantings began to appear in Japanese writings, in the medieval period, recognizable bonsai were portrayed in handscroll paintings like the Ippen shonin eden. The 1195 scroll Saigyo Monogatari Emaki was the earliest known to depict dwarfed potted trees in Japan, wooden tray and dish-like pots with dwarf landscapes on modern-looking wooden shelves also appear in the 1309 Kasuga-gongen-genki scroll. In 1351, dwarf trees displayed on short poles were portrayed in the Boki Ekotoba scroll, several other scrolls and paintings also included depictions of these kinds of trees. A close relationship between Japans Zen Buddhism and the trees began to shape bonsai reputation and esthetics. In this period, Chinese Chan Buddhist monks taught at Japans monasteries, one of the monks activities was to introduce political leaders to various arts of miniature landscapes as admirable accomplishments for men of taste and learning
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Chrysanthemum
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Chrysanthemums, sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae. They are native to Asia and northeastern Europe, most species originate from East Asia and the center of diversity is in China. There are countless horticultural varieties and cultivars, the name chrysanthemum is derived from the Ancient Greek, χρυσός chrysos and Ancient Greek, ἄνθεμον anthemon. The genus once included more species, but was several decades ago into several genera. The other species included in the narrow view of the genus Chrysanthemum are now transferred to the genus Glebionis. The other genera separate from Chrysanthemum include Argyranthemum, Leucanthemopsis, Leucanthemum, Rhodanthemum, wild Chrysanthemum taxa are herbaceous perennial plants or subshrubs. They have alternately arranged leaves divided into leaflets with toothed or occasionally smooth edges, the compound inflorescence is an array of several flower heads, or sometimes a solitary head. The head has a base covered in layers of phyllaries, the simple row of ray florets are white, yellow or red, many horticultural specimens have been bred to bear many rows of ray florets in a great variety of colors. The disc florets of wild taxa are yellow, the fruit is a ribbed achene. Chrysanthemums, also known as ‘mums’, are one of the prettiest varieties of perennials that start blooming early in the fall and this is also known as favorite flower for the month of November. Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC, over 500 cultivars had been recorded by the year 1630. The plant is renowned as one of the Four Gentlemen in Chinese, the plant is particularly significant during the Double Ninth Festival. The flower may have brought to Japan in the eighth century AD. The Festival of Happiness in Japan celebrates the flower, Chrysanthemums entered American horticulture in 1798 when Colonel John Stevens imported a cultivated variety known as Dark Purple from England. The introduction was part of an effort to grow attractions within Elysian Fields in Hoboken, modern cultivated chrysanthemums are showier than their wild relatives. The flower heads occur in forms, and can be daisy-like or decorative. This genus contains many hybrids and thousands of cultivars developed for horticultural purposes, in addition to the traditional yellow, other colors are available, such as white, purple, and red. The most important hybrid is Chrysanthemum × morifolium, derived primarily from C. indicum, over 140 varieties of chrysanthemum have gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit
34.
Tagetes
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Tagetes is a genus of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants in the sunflower family. It was described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753, the genus is native to North and South America, but some species have become naturalized around the world. One species, T. minuta, is considered an invasive plant in some areas. Tagetes species vary in size from 0.1 to 2.2 m tall, most species have pinnate green leaves. Blooms naturally occur in golden, orange, yellow, and white colors, floral heads are typically to 4–6 cm diameter, generally with both ray florets and disc florets. In horticulture, they tend to be planted as annuals, although the species are gaining popularity. Depending on the species, Tagetes species grow well in almost any sort of soil, most horticultural selections grow best in soil with good drainage, even though some cultivars are known to have good tolerance to drought. The name Tagetes is from the name of the Etruscan Tages and it likely refers to the ease with which plants of this genus come out each year either by the seeds produced in the previous year, or by the stems which regrowth from the stump already in place. The common name in English, marigold, is derived from Marys gold, in Nepal, it is called शयपत्री that means hundred-leafed flower, referring to its many florets per head. The most commonly cultivated varieties of Tagetes are known variously as African marigolds, the so-called signet marigolds are hybrids derived mostly from Tagetes tenuifolia. Tagetes minuta is the source of commercial tagetes oil used in industry and it is now a naturalized species in Africa, Hawaii, and Australia, and is considered an invasive species in some regions. Depending on the species, marigold foliage has a musky, pungent scent and it is said to deter some common insect pests, as well as nematodes. Tagetes species are often used in companion planting for tomato, eggplant, chili pepper, tobacco. Due to antibacterial thiophenes exuded by the roots, Tagetes should not be planted near any legume crop, some of the perennial species are deer-, rabbit-, rodent- and javalina or peccary-resistant. It is commonly cultivated in South Africa, where the species is also a pioneer plant in the reclamation of disturbed land. In the United States, however, the powders and extracts are only approved as colorants in poultry feed, Marigolds are recorded as a food plant for some Lepidoptera caterpillars including the dot moth, and a nectar source for other butterflies. They are often part of butterfly gardening plantings, in the wild, many species are pollinated by beetles. The species Tagetes lucida, known as pericón, is used to prepare a sweetish and it is also used as a culinary herb in many warm climates, as a substitute for tarragon, and offered in the nursery as Texas tarragon or Mexican mint marigold
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Celosia
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Celosia /siːˈloʊʃiə/ is a small genus of edible and ornamental plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek word κήλεος, meaning burning, species are commonly known as woolflowers, or, if the flower heads are crested by fasciation, cockscombs. The plants are known in East Africa’s highlands and are used under their Swahili name. Seed production in these species can be high, 200–700 kg per hectare. One ounce of seed may contain up to 43,000 seeds, one thousand seeds can weigh 1. 0-1.2 grams. Depending upon the location and fertility of the soil, blossoms can last 8–10 weeks, Celosia cristata is a common garden ornamental plant in China and other places. Celosia argentea var. argentea or Lagos spinach is a broadleaf annual leaf vegetable, in Spain it is known as Rooster comb because of its appearance. As a grain, Cockscomb is a pseudo-cereal, not a true cereal and these leaves, young stems and young inflorescences are used for stew, as they soften up readily in cooking. The leaves also have a texture and a mild spinach-like taste. They are also pepped up with things as hot pepper, garlic, fresh lime. Despite its African origin, celosia is known as a foodstuff in Indonesia and India, moreover, in the future it might become more widely eaten, especially in the hot and malnourished regions of the equatorial zone. He continues “Every place I have tried it, it grows with no work and we have had no disease problems and very little insect damage. It reseeds itself abundantly and new plants have come up in the immediate vicinity. ”Works well in areas and is the most-used leafy plant in Nigeria. It grows in the wet season and grows well while other plants succumb to mold, though a very simple plant, Celosia does need moderate soil moisture. Celosia argentea L. Celosia cristata L. Celosia floribunda A. Gray Celosia isertii C. C. Towns, Celosia nitida Vahl Celosia odorata T. Cooke Celosia palmeri S. Watson Celosia plumosa syn. C. argentea Celosia spicata L. Celosia trigyna L. Celosia virgata Jacq, chamissoa altissima Kunth Deeringia amaranthoides Merr. Uses and Growth of Celosia spp
36.
Narcissus tazetta
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Narcissus tazetta is a perennial ornamental plant that grows from a bulb. Cultivars of N. tazetta include Paperwhite, Grand Soleil dOr and Ziva, Narcissus tazetta is amongst the tallest of the narcissi, and can grow to a height of up to 80 cm, with thin, flat leaves up to 40 cm long and 15 mm wide. Umbels have as many as 8 flowers, white with a yellow corona, six subspecies are accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, N. tazetta subsp. Aureus Baker – south-east France, Sardinia, north-west Italy, Algeria, canariensis Baker – Canary Islands N. tazetta subsp. – south-east China, Japan, South Korea N. tazetta subsp, corcyrensis Baker – Corfu N. tazetta subsp. Italicus Baker syn. N. italicus – Mediterranean from southern France to Greece N. tazetta subsp, experiments with honeybees have shown they can readily detect it. Narcissus tazetta is a species, native to the Mediterranean region from Portugal to Turkey. Narcissus tazetta is grown commercially for its oil, mostly in southern France. An interspecies hybrid, with Narcissus poeticus, is grown for its essential oil. A recent medicinal use is that a protein known as lectin has antiviral properties against influenza. This is based on a dose-dependent manner, the antiviral property results from the fact that it can inhibit RSV during the viral infection cycle and so the problem could not spread. The antiviral activity of the certain lectin group protein will usually have an effect during the earlier stages of the influenza. It has little cytotoxicity and great potential as an antiviral agent, so it has potential for further use in biotechnology research in the future
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Pansy
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The garden pansy is a type of large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section Melanium of the genus Viola, particularly Viola tricolor, some of these hybrids are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana Gams ex Nauenb. For simplicity, the older name Viola tricolor var. hortensis is often used and these petals are usually white or yellow, purplish, or blue. The plant may grow to nine inches in height, and prefers sun to varying degrees, english common names, such as pansy, viola and violet may be used interchangeably. One possible distinction is that plants considered to be pansies are classified in Viola sect, Melanium, and have four petals pointing upwards, and only one pointing down, whereas those considered to be violets are classified in Viola sect. Viola, and have two petals pointing up and three pointing down, another possible distinction is made by the American Violet Society – the International Cultivar Registration Authority for the genus Viola. It divides cultivated varieties in Viola sect, Melanium into four subgroups, B1 – pansies, B2 – violas, B3 – violettas and B4 – cornuta hybrids. On this classification, modern pansies differ from the three subgroups by possessing a well-defined blotch or eye in the middle of the flower. The name love in idleness was meant to imply the image of a lover who has little or no other employment than to think of his beloved, the name heart’s-ease came from St. Euphrasia, whose name in Greek signifies cheerfulness of mind. The woman, who refused marriage and took the veil, was considered a pattern of humility, in Italy the pansy is known as flammola. In Hungary it is known as árvácska, in Israel, the pansy is known as Amnon and Tamar, after the tragic story involving three of King Davids children. Under the supervision of her gardener, William Richardson, a variety of plants was produced via cross-breeding. In 1812, she introduced her pansies to the world, and, in 1813, Mr. Lee. Other nurserymen followed Lees example, and the became a favorite among the public. About the same time that Lady Bennett was busy cultivating heartsease, James and it was developed in Gambiers garden and released to the public in 1839 with the name Medora. By 1833, there were 400 named pansies available to gardeners who once considered its progenitor, heartsease, specific guidelines were formulated for show pansies but amateur gardeners preferred the less demanding fancy pansies. About this time, James Grieve developed the viola and Dr. Charles Stuart developed the violetta, modern horticulturists have developed a wide range of pansy flower colors and bicolors including yellow, gold, orange, purple, violet, red, white, and even near-black. Pansies typically display large showy face markings, plants grow well in sunny or partially sunny positions in well-draining soils
38.
Calligraphy
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Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, a contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable, classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, the principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. Calligraphy pens write with nibs that may be flat, round, for some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens. There are some styles of calligraphy, like Gothic script, which require a stub nib pen, Writing ink is usually water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. Normally, light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work, ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most often ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are occasionally used. This is the case with litterea unciales, and college-ruled paper often acts as a guideline well, common calligraphy pens and brushes are, Quill Dip pen Ink brush Qalam Fountain pen Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script. The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, in the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed. As writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was more suitable for copying the Bible. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, at the height of the Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain, when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon, each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region, which are mostly cursive and hardly readable. Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the copying of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial developed from a variety of Roman bookhands, the 7th-9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Charlemagnes devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of a crowd of scribes, according to Alcuin, Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one hand from which modern booktype descends
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Pomelo
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Citrus maxima, is a natural citrus fruit, similar in appearance to a large grapefruit, native to South and Southeast Asia. The pomelo is one of the four original citrus species from which the rest of cultivated citrus hybridized, citrus maxima was originally called shaddock in English, after the captain of an East India Company ship who introduced it to Jamaica in 1696. The word pomelo has become the common name, although pomelo has historically been used for grapefruit. The etymology of the pomelo is complex. In the Tamil languageit is called pampa limāsu, which means big citrus, the name was adopted by the Portuguese as pomposos limões and then by the Dutch as pompelmoes. The name can be found some deviations in many European languages, for example German, Latvian, Ido. This fruit is called by shedock by English authors from the name of a British captain. However, another proposed that pomelo is an alteration of a compound of English names pome + melon. Citrus maxima is native to Southeast Asia where it is known under a variety of names. In large parts of South East Asia, it is a dessert, often eaten raw sprinkled with, or dipped in. It is also eaten in salads and drinks and it is called in Maithili- टाभ नेबो that makes special अर्घ in छठ पूजा. The fruit is pale green to yellow when ripe, with sweet white flesh. It is a citrus fruit, 15–25 centimetres in diameter. The fruit tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit, though the typical pomelo is much larger than the grapefruit, and also has a much thicker rind. It has none, or very little, of the common grapefruits bitterness, but the enveloping membranous material around the segments is bitter, considered inedible, the peel is sometimes used to make marmalade, can be candied, and is sometimes dipped in chocolate. In Brazil, the skin is often used for making a sweet conserve. In Sri Lanka, it is eaten as a dessert. Occasionally some Asian fat-heavy dishes use sliced pre-soaked pith to absorb the sauce, citrus maxima is usually grafted onto other citrus rootstocks but can be grown from seed, provided the seeds are not allowed to dry out before planting
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History of writing in Vietnam
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The two scripts coexisted until the era of French Indochina when the Latin alphabet quốc ngữ script gradually became the written medium of both government and popular literature. In Vietnamese, Chinese characters are called chữ Hán, Hán tự, Hán văn, Hán văn also means Chinese language literature. The Vietnamese word chữ is derived from the Old Chinese word 字, however the character set for chữ nôm is extensive, up to 20,000, and both arbitrary in composition and inconsistent in pronunciation. There is a significant orthographic overlap between Hán and Nôm and many characters are used in both Hán and Nôm with the same reading, the term chữ quốc ngữ means Vietnamese written in romanised script. No writings in Chinese by Vietnamese writers survive from the Chinese domination period, in Imperial Vietnam, formal writings were, in most cases, done in classical Chinese. This was true both of the language of government and administration, and also of entry into government and administration by the wholly Chinese-language Confucian examination system in Vietnam, Chinese was also the language of medicine, astrology, religion, science and high literature such as poetry. Vietnamese existed only as a language, before the creation of the nom script to preserve and circulate less serious poetry. In Vietnam classical Chinese texts was read with the vocalization of Chinese text as such, equivalent to the Chinese On-readings in Japanese kambun and this occurring alongside entry of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary into the vernacular Vietnamese language. And creating, in Samuel Martins term, a Sinoxenic dialect, the Sinologist Edwin G. Pulleyblank was the one of the first linguists to actively employ Sino-Vietnamese to recover the earlier history of Chinese. During the Ming dynasty occupation of Vietnam chữ nôm printing blocks, texts and inscriptions were destroyed, the use of classical Chinese, and its written form, chữ nho, died out in Vietnam early in the 20th century during the middle years of French Indochina. At this time there were four competing writing systems in Vietnam, chữ nho, chữ nôm, quốc ngữ. Some scholars still study it today although its application is mostly confined to the context of Vietnamese texts. Individual Hán tự are still written by calligraphers for special occasions such as the Vietnamese New Year, Hán Nôm Institute is the national centre for academic research into both Hán and nôm texts. Since the mid-1990s a small resurgence in teaching of Chinese characters, the significance of the characters has occasionally entered Western depiction of Vietnam, for instance novelist E. M. Nathanson mentions the characters in A Dirty Distant War. For linguists the Sino-Vietnamese readings of Chinese characters provide data for the study of historical Chinese phonology, 漢字 Hán tự, A Vietnamese-Chinese wordlist Từ điển Hán Việt Thiều Chửu Hán Việt Từ Điển Trích Dẫn, Vietnamese Han character dictionary Thiều Chửu dictionary
41.
Temple of Literature, Hanoi
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The Temple of Literature is a Temple of Confucius in Hanoi, northern Vietnam. The temple hosts the Imperial Academy, Vietnams first national university, the temple was built in 1070 at the time of Emperor Lý Thánh Tông. It is one of several temples in Vietnam which is dedicated to Confucius, sages, the temple is located to the south of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long. The various pavilions, halls, statues and stelae of doctors are places where offering ceremonies, study sessions, the temple is featured on the back of the 100,000 Vietnamese đồng banknote. Just before the Vietnamese New Year celebration Tết, calligraphists will assemble outside the temple, the art works are given away as gifts or are used as home decorations for special occasions. The temple was built in 1070 and was reconstructed during the Trần dynasty, for nearly two centuries, despite wars and disasters, the temple has preserved ancient architectural styles of many dynasties as well as precious relics. Major restorations have taken place in 1920,1954 and 2000, in the autumn of the year Canh Tuat, the second year of Than Vu, in the 8th lunar month, during the reign of King Lý Thánh Tông, the Văn Miếu was built. The statues of Confucius, his four best disciples, Yan Hui, Zengzi, Zisi, Ceremonies were dedicated to them in each of the four seasons. In 1076, Vietnams first university, the Quốc Tử Giám or Imperial Academy, was established within the temple to educate Vietnams bureaucrats, nobles, royalty, the university remained open from 1076 to 1779. In 1802, the Nguyễn dynastys monarchs founded the Huế capital where they established a new imperial academy, the academy at the Hanoi temple lost its prominence and became a school of the Hoài Đức District. Under the French protectorate, the Văn Miếu - Quốc Tử Giám was registered as Monument historique in 1906, campaigns of restoration were pursued in 1920 and 1947 under the responsibility of École française dExtrême-Orient and again after World War II. The Emperor Lý Thánh Tông built the school and it was built in 1076 AD at the time of Emperor Lý Thánh Tông. It was built as a school for the rich and royals to study because education is very important, after that, it was used as university for everyone because there werent enough universities for everyone in Hanoi. They wanted that a lot of people would go to the school so they expanded to more space for more people. It was rebuilt because the wood that the Emperor used in the olden days had been so old that it started to break and fall apart. As the days went by, the kings kept replacing the wood and now we have replaced the wood with concrete or metal, stone and new wood. When the French ruled Vietnam at around 1945-1954, they destroyed parts of the temple to make room for the sick. The temple layout is similar to that of the temple at Qufu, Shandong and it covers an area of over 54000 square metres, including the Văn lake, Giám park and the interior courtyards which are surrounded by a brick wall
