It’s 2017. Happy New Year!
Craft animals on display in a shop along the old streets of Jiufen (九份) in Taiwan. Photo taken with Canon EOS 5DsR with Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens.
May 2017 be a fantastic year for you and your loved ones!
Posts Tagged ‘holidays’
Holiday greetings: Happy New Year 2017
Sunday, January 1st, 2017Last day of 2016 – New Year’s Eve for 2017
Saturday, December 31st, 2016It’s the last day of 2016. Hope you had a good year!
Golden Sunset at Tamsui in Taiwan. Photo credit: kkmakesandbakes (my wife). Taken with Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with M.Zuiko 25mm f1.8 lens.
Glad the year’s drawing to a close. Best wishes for the New Year!
Holiday greetings: Happy Lunar New Year 2016
Monday, February 8th, 2016Happy New Year to all the people from cultures that celebrate this traditional festival! And to all Chinese around the world, Happy Chinese New Year!
It’s Chinese New Year today and the beginning of the Monkey year in the Chinese Zodiac. Happy Chinese New Year!
It’s the first day of the Lunar New Year. This year, it’s the year of the Monkey, according to the Chinese zodiac.
We took the photo when our family visited Jigokudani in Nagano back in 2008 to see the unique Snow Monkeys that indulge in the natural hotsprings there amidst the Winter snow.
Time to say goodbye to the Goat Year
Sunday, February 7th, 2016Today is the eve of the Lunar New Year, and the last day of the year of the Goat.
Saying goodbye to the Goat Year. Today is the last day of the year of the Goat Zodiac. Tomorrow is the traditional Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Monkey Year.
Tomorrow is the traditional New Year based on the Lunar calendar and the beginning of the Monkey Year, according to the Chinese Zodiac.
The curious goat in the photo was grazing on farmland on the mountainside overlooking Zell am See in Austria.
Holiday greetings: Good Friday 2015
Friday, April 3rd, 2015Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary. It is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians, and is a public holiday in many countries, including Singapore.
We were trekking from the Salzburg Fortress to the Nonnberg Abbey one evening on vacation when we came upon these beautiful altarpieces set into the rock surface of the hill upon which the fortress was built. There was even a shelter built above the altarpieces to protect them from the elements. Photo taken with a Sony A7 with 24-70mm lens. Photo credit: John Tan, 2014.
The year of the crucifixion is estimated to have occurred in AD 33.
Here’s wishing our Christian friends a peaceful and reflective Easter Weekend.
Holiday greetings: Happy Lunar New Year 2015
Thursday, February 19th, 2015It’s the first day of the Lunar New Year. This year, it’s the year of the Goat, according to the Chinese zodiac.
Happy New Year to all the people from cultures that celebrate this traditional festival! And to all Chinese around the world, Happy Chinese New Year!
I snapped this photo of a kid in a small town called Takamori at the Southeastern corner of the Aso caldera in Kyushu, Japan. The Chinese greetings is a pun during the Goat (on the Chinese Zodiac) years on the traditional Lunar New Year greeting “三阳开泰” – which augurs an auspicious year ahead as the sun ushers in the warm Spring from the cold Winter. Photo taken in 2012 with a Nikon D800 DSLR with an AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
It’s customary for Chinese to give out Ang Pows during the Lunar New Year. These are red paper envelopes containing money that’s given to relatives and children.
It being the new year, you’re supposed to use crispy new notes in these red packets.
POTD: Valentine’s Day 2014
Friday, February 14th, 2014It’s Valentine’s Day today. This year, it coincides with Chap Goh Meh – the fifteenth and final day of the Chinese New Year – which many consider the Chinese Valentine’s Day. Here’s wishing all lovers a most romantic day/night!
Lots of lovey-dovey couples here, in the form of hugging salt and pepper bottles. I took this photo at the Hakaniemi Market Hall in Helsinki, Finland in summer. There were plenty of such charming craft stores for tourists and local Finns alike. Taken with a Nikon D600 with AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
In many places in the world that celebrate Valentine’s Day, boys buy flowers, chocolates and gifts for their girlfriends, wives, mistresses or lovers.
Actually, marketing practitioners should examine this so-called unique Japanese culture more closely.
Apparently, the practice has its roots in 1936 as part of the advertising campaign of chocolate makers in Kobe, but has captured the imagination of the Japanese populace such that it is widely practiced today.
Those chocolate makers must have been laughing to the bank, having created nation wide, recurring demand out of thin air.
Brilliant!
Sometimes the girl reciprocates.
In Japan, it is the girl who buys for the guys.
I know – because I received plenty on Valentine’s Day when I was in Japan.
The tradition in Japan is for girls to buy white chocolates (called giri-chocos – 義理チョコ) and give them to the guys.
This does not happen just between couples that are in a relationship.
Holiday greetings: Happy Lunar New Year 2014
Friday, January 31st, 2014It’s the first day of the Lunar New Year. Happy New Year to all the people from cultures that celebrate this traditional festival! And to all Chinese around the world, Happy Chinese New Year!
Auspicious red horse bringing good tidings as the Year of the Horse arrives in Chinatown in Singapore. Taken with Samsung GALAXY Note 3 phablet camera. Cropped and captions added in Photoshop CC.
It’s customary for Chinese to give out Ang Pows during the Lunar New Year.
These are red paper envelopes containing money that’s given to relatives and children.
“车水马龙” – 正好形容本地牛”车水”迎接”马”年新春的盛景(包括这些灯”笼”及马路上的交通长”龙”)。上星期与家人一同闲逛牛车水,到处人山人海,车水马龙,洋溢着迎春的气氛。这枚照片, 利用 Samsung GALAXY Note 3 手机手持拍摄。
It being the new year, you’re supposed to use crispy new notes in these red packets.
I had to go on a little round-the-island this year to exchange for new notes, because I found that – unlike some past years – the ATM machines were dispensing old notes.
