Talk in Vancouver about Making Chinese New Year a stat holiday

[ChairmanMah]

Since there is no holiday for a 4 month period between New Years and Easter.

In BC there are 9 stat holidays.
In Alberta there is 10.

In places such as Portugal, there are 14.

Alot of people think it is a good idea, especially that there is a large chinese pop. in Vancouver, BC. But some grinches have said that there are lots of cultures with different holidays so where do you draw the line?

What is your opinion on the topic?

I'd like to know what people from toronto and the rest of Canada think.

[ChairmanMah]

how do i make this into a poll??

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Most nationally-recognized holidays such as Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Hanukkah, and of course Christmas, regardless of how they are currently celebrated or how commercialized they are, originated as religiously or culturally-exclusive holidays anyway. You can always argue that making new holidays offends certain groups or whatever because the holiday doesn't apply to their ethnic group, nationality, faith, creed, etc. If everyone is so concerned about Chinese New Year offending non-Chinese or whatever, why don't we say fuck it to Winter break to stop us from offending all non-Christians as well as all people who don't believe in Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Then we would have to go to school for all of December. I don't think any of us wants that. Even worse, we shouldn't be calling it Chinese New Year since Vietnamese and Korean (and maybe other Asian groups) people also celebrate the arrival of the new lunar year, whilst using their own rites and traditional ceremonies and also calling it something entirely different.

[ChairmanMah]

Most nationally-recognized holidays such as Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Hanukkah, and of course Christmas, regardless of how they are currently celebrated or how commercialized they are, originated as religiously or culturally-exclusive holidays anyway. You can always argue that making new holidays offends certain groups or whatever because the holiday doesn't apply to their ethnic group, nationality, faith, creed, etc. If everyone is so concerned about Chinese New Year offending non-Chinese or whatever, why don't we say fuck it to Winter break to stop us from offending all non-Christians as well as all people who don't believe in Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Then we would have to go to school for all of December. I don't think any of us wants that. Even worse, we shouldn't be calling it Chinese New Year since Vietnamese and Korean (and maybe other Asian groups) people also celebrate the arrival of the new lunar year, whilst using their own rites and traditional ceremonies and also calling it something entirely different.

well lunar new year would be fine as well. then it would be more universal.

[Emperor_Mike]

It would be a good idea if the purpose is to recognise the event for what it is and not just because there's no holiday between New Years and Easter.

[SunWuKong]

how do i make this into a poll??


there you go.

[Chris]

In San Francisco, Public Schools get Lunar New Year off.

[sqd]

only the chinese, vietnamese and korean celebrate the lunar new year. NO other Asians celebrate the new year at the same time at these three Asian groups.

[SunWuKong]

only the chinese, vietnamese and korean celebrate the lunar new year. NO other Asians celebrate the new year at the same time at these three Asian groups.

those are the three that i know of, but are you really sure those are the only three? i'm trying to think of a Southeast Asian group that might celebrate Lunar New Year.

[bluemonq]

i think it's thailand.
only the chinese, vietnamese and korean celebrate the lunar new year. NO other Asians celebrate the new year at the same time at these three Asian groups.
yeah, so that's only 1.2 billion people or so. no biggie.

:tongue:

[yoMAMA]

i think it's thailand.

yeah, so that's only 1.2 billion people or so. no biggie.

:tongue:

more than 1.2 billion if you count Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, cauz they all celebrate lunar new year.

:biggrin:

[ahsingjai]

In San Francisco, Public Schools get Lunar New Year off.

Man. Oakland don't. That sucks.

more than 1.2 billion if you count Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, cauz they all celebrate lunar new year.

:biggrin:

Since Chinese make up 1.3 billion, plus the rest of Asia/Asian communites who celebrate it, it would add up to 1/4 of the world's population

[bluemonq]

my bad; i was using old numbers. it totals to over 1.4 billion people. japan officially has its new year celebration on january 1, oddly enough. technically, india and cambodia also celebrate the lunar new year, but they interpret the lunar calendar differently; india has it in october or november and cambodia has it in mid-april.

oh yes, singapore celebrates the lunar new year too. so we have something over 2.4 billion people in all, if you count india and cambodia.

[yoMAMA]

Man. Oakland don't. That sucks.



Since Chinese make up 1.3 billion, plus the rest of Asia/Asian communites who celebrate it, it would add up to 1/4 of the world's population

we rule.

end of story.

:tongue:

[YuheiCarreau]

more than 1.2 billion if you count Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, cauz they all celebrate lunar new year.

:biggrin:

Japanese use the Gregorian calendar.

[thaite]

Sure, why not? Thai people will celebrate anything. And I'd like to visit Vancouver one of these days.