Author Archives: ACook

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

May 12, 2012

Mother’s Day is a very special day where we honor our moms for their loving kindness, their support, and their influence they have on society. I especially love Mother’s Day, because I love to make my mom feel like the special woman that she is. Although I do that throughout the year, it’s just something about Mother’s Day that makes being a mom extra special. It’s the time of the year when people can show mom and people that are like moms how important they are.

Mother’s Day is not only celebrated here in the United States, but also around the world. In Uruguay, Mother’s Day, known as Día de la Madre, is celebrated on the second Sunday in May just as it is celebrated here. Similar to what mothers in the U.S receive, mothers in Uruguay receive flowers, cards, and extra love from their families. In Argentina, Uruguay’s neighbor, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in October. Argentineans celebrate Mother’s Day by celebrating the Virgin Mary and having a festival.

Unlike many other countries, Guatemala always celebrates Mother’s Day on May 10th as well as Mexico and El Salvador (http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/when/). Also, in El Salvador, Mother’s Day is very important because mothers play an important role in the lives of children. Salvadorians cherish their mother’s, not only on this day, but all year long.

Mother’s Day celebrations in China are similar to that of other countries celebrate. Mother’s Day is celebrated on May 13th in China. On this day, Husbands and children make mothers feel special by bringing gifts, making greeting cards, or writing letters with special thank you messages inside. In China, carnations represent the flower of mothers. The petals of the carnation flower symbolize a mother’s care and love. In Beijing, 10 distinguished mothers are awarded every year on the eve of Mother’s Day. (http://www.shenzhenparty.com/abpo-celebrate-mothers-day-2011-in-china).

As you can see, Mother’s Day all around the world is an important holiday to many. Make it special in your own way! Happy Mother’s Day! Feliz Día de la Madre! Mu Qin Jie Kuai Le!

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Chinese Musical Instruments

April 18, 2012

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I love music! It’s something about music that can tell a story or help you recall a moment in your life. Many times, people listen to music to relax, and others listen just to have a good time. Some people listen to the lyrics and some listen to the beats. I really can’t say that I can define music with symbols, time signatures, voices, or even musical instruments. In fact, anything can be used as an instrument to make music. According to dictionary.com, music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. I truly appreciate different types of music, but more importantly the instruments that make the music. When we typically think of the different types of musical instruments, we think of woodwind, brass, percussion, and string. I favor strings more because I actually play the acoustic guitar.

I found it very interesting that in China, there are 8 categories of instruments, opposed to the 4 we may normally think of. Those 8 are silk (strings), bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and hide (leather). Each of these categories names are given because of what the instrument is made of. Metal refers to instruments fashioned out of metals, such as gongs, and bronze drums, stone refers to stone instruments such as chimes and carillons, and string (my favorite) instruments refers to having strings played with the fingers or with a plectrum or a bow, such as Chinese violin, 25-stringed horizontal harp and zither-like instruments with many strings.

Then you have bamboo which refers to instruments made from bamboo stalk, including vertical bamboo flutes and 8-holed bamboo flutes, gourd which refers to wind instruments using a gourd as the resonator, such as sheng and yu, and clay which refers to earthen instruments, including xun, an egg-shaped wind instrument with one to six holes in it, and fou, a clay percussion instrument. Last, but not least, you have the leather instruments using animal skins as vibration membranes, such as drums and waist drums and wood instruments made mainly from wood. Common ones include hollow wooden block used to beat rhythm and xylophone (http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/94Arts1432.html).

Since I am so interested in the guitars, a part of the strings family, I looked more into guitars that are played in China. In China, guitars are known as a pipa, and the person playing it sits upwards as demonstrated in the picture below and typically there are only 4 or 5 strings, opposed the 6 strings that are on a traditional acoustic guitar. The pipa has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12–26, whereas a traditional acoustic guitar has between 20-21. It just amazes me how similar and yet distinctly different these two instruments are. Like I said before anything can be used to make music, so get out here on this lovely day and make some with whatever kind of instrument you have!

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Cuban Cuisines!

March 30, 2012

Any person loves a great meal! Majority of the time, when we get together, there is always food involved. Personally, I love to try new things, especially food! Since my birthday is less than a week away, looking for new restaurants cuisines and recipes have been on my list of things to do. I looked up a few recipes for different Mexican foods, and came pass a slew of Cuban Cuisines! Unlike Mexican food, Cuban food is based on more citrus flavors and marinades. Many foods are based in a tomato sauce base with oregano and cumin. Many limes are used for flavoring or as a ‘finishing touch”. Mexican foods use more cilantro and are considered spicy.

I love spicy foods, so I’m used to eating Mexican foods, but I like to try new things. These Cuban Cuisines would definitely be something new for me. There is a traditional Cuban Cuisine that caught my attention, named Pollo con Quimbobó y Plátanos, Chicken with Okra and Plantains. This traditional meal consists of a whole chicken that has been cut up and fried before being stewed with bits of okra, plantain bananas, onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, olives and lemon or lime juice. Once stewed, it is served hot over white rice. Any meal with chicken and rice is my favorite! Almost every recipe I looked up had tomato sauce which I thought was interesting. If you think this recipe is as interesting as I did, you can learn how to make it here http://www.food.com/recipe/pollo-quimbob-y-platano-chicken-okra-and-plantain-232563.

With every birthday meal, comes great dessert! Another great recipe that looked absolutely amazing is a Cuban opera cake. This cake is traditionally served at birthday parties and engagement parties. It includes chocolate glaze, coffee mousse, and buttercream! I wouldn’t mind having a slice of that on my birthday! It’s a new day everyone so get out and try something new! Have some cake for me and try this recipe!

Cuban Opera Cake
=== CAKE ===
4 Oz bittersweet (or semisweet chocolate ), chopped
= (do not use unsweetened)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
2 cups golden brown sugar – (packed)
1/2 cup unsalted butter – (1 stick), room temperature
3 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cream

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Chinese Leap Year

March 2, 2012

I wonder what life would be like if I was born on Feb 29 and it was a leap year. I could celebrate on either February 28th or March 1st during a regular year. I find it pretty interesting in knowing how a leap year works. During a normal leap year, an additional day is added in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. In other words, so it won’t still be winter in April or spring in July!

In China, the leap year is a little different. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, meaning it’s based on exact astronomical observations of the sun’s longitude and the moon’s phases. Each year is assigned a name consisting of two components, the celestial stem and the terrestrial branch which correspond to the 12 animal names in the zodiac cycle. An ordinary leap year has 12 months and between 353-355 days. The Chinese leap year has 13 months and between 383-385 days. So instead of adding a day, the Chinese add an extra month to their calendar. A leap month is added about once every three years.

A Chinese leap year does not necessarily fall at the same time as it does in the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar serves as the standard calendar throughout most of the world. Although the Chinese calendar originated in China, the Gregorian calendar is now used in China. However, the Chinese calendar is still used to determine festival dates such as weddings, the Chinese New Year, as well as the moon phases.

Could you imagine having 13 months? I wonder what we would call it or maybe if we had 385 days in a year. I guess there wouldn’t be any more songs that said 365 days a year! Very interesting, well happy leap year everyone! (http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/about-chinese.html)

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La Siesta!

February 17, 2012

Sometimes when I have a very busy day ahead of me, I just wish I could take a nap! Many people in American society are so busy that they don’t even have time to get a normal 7 to 8 hours of sleep, let alone a nap. Sleep deprivation has become an epidemic because people will keep going just to get things done. It’s rare that adults take naps in the middle of the day. Now imagine being a part of a culture where taking a nap in the middle of the day is considered custom. Let’s travel to Spain where napping is referred to as a Siesta.

Siesta is derived from the Latin word hora sexta, meaning the sixth hour, counting from dawn until noon. Originally, the concept of the siesta was created to allow people to get out of the heat during the early afternoon, when it’s most hot. Later, the siesta allowed people to spend time with their friends and family. Most often this time is spent after the “lunch hour” which is the largest meal of the day. People would come home to their mothers cooking and eat. Because of the high temperatures and heavy intake of food, people became tired and drowsy and would take a nap.

Although the siesta is not as prominent today as it once was, some regions still hold it sacred because it’s apart of their culture and has been for years. During the siesta the streets are deserted. Now imagine Times Square at 12 noon with no people in sight. That would be a shock because everyone knows that New York is a very busy place! People in American society are so used to being on the go all the time, that trying to take something like a siesta, and working a full day’s job would be hard. It just shows that different cultures have different ways of life.

Although some may wish that taking an afternoon nap become custom here in American society, we know the reality is that everyone is busy busy busy! At the end of the day, at least try to make time for your family and friends and get a good night’s sleep!

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Chinese Valentine’s Day

February 3, 2012

Hi everyone, my name is April Cook, and along with Robin Su, I am filling the management intern position here at FWFL where learning a language is FUN! We both will be coming to you bi-weekly giving you some great updates on different cultures, fun facts, and great foods!

Now as you all know, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! When we think of Valentines Days, hearts, cupids, flowers, cards, and our significant others come to mind. As we know, Valentine’s Day is a day that came from St. Valentine where lovers express their love for one another with greeting cards and flowers. We always celebrate it the same way every year. Now can you imagine Valentine’s Day in China?

In China, Valentine’s Day is referred to as “Qi Qiao Jie” or the seventh eve. Although we are used to getting gifts here in the U.S on Valentine’s Day, in China they do not exchange gifts on this day. On Chinese Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated in August instead of February, there is a legend about the position of the stars on the seventh day in the Chinese lunar calendar. The legend believes that the seven daughters of the Goddess of Heaven caught the eye of a Cowherd during their visit to earth. While the daughters were bathing in the river the Cowherd, named Niu Lang, decided to run off with their clothes because he thought it would be funny.

The prettiest daughter Zhi Nu, who was also the seventh child born, decided to ask him for their clothes back. Since he had seen her naked, they had to be married and were happy for years. After a while, the Goddess of Heaven didn’t like the fact that her daughter was gone, so she made her come back to Heaven. After she made her daughter, Zhi Nu come back to Heaven, she felt bad for the couple and allowed them to reunite once a year. So on the seventh night of the seventh moon, magpies form a bridge with their wings for Zhi Nu to cross to meet Niu Lang.

Now on Chinese Valentine’s Day, they celebrate by having the Seven Sisters Festival. On this day, along with a bunch of other rituals that are performed, young couples wait for their chance to get married and single girls seek to find their life partner and soul mates.

It’s very interesting how people can celebrate the same holiday, but in very different ways based on their cultures. On Valentine’s Day, both celebrate love and yet one is just to show the other that they love them and one is more on the lines of marriage and finding their soul mates. So spend Valentine’s Day how you would like to, whether it is with a friend or a significant other, show them you love them because you never know the person you take out could be your life partner!

Happy Early Valentine’s Day Everyone!<3

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