Eagerly awaiting Chinese New Year

Also pictured here is my good friend Chris Y, an ethnic Chinese Malaysian, eagerly waiting for the Chinese New Year celebrations to begin. He will be celebrating it in his hometown Ipoh, in central peninsular Malaysia.

Chinese New Year celebrations

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Decorations and goodies at The Summit shopping mall in preparation for the Chinese New Year which falls on Monday, the 26th of January, 2009.

Sometimes called the Spring Festival, it is one of the most important traditional Chinese holidays. It is also called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside of China.

The festival begins on the first day of the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar and ends with a Lantern Festival on the 15th day, also called Chap Goh Meh.

Celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, it is considered the most important holiday for the Chinese. It had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction.

These include Aboriginal Taiwanese people, Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese and Vietnamese. In mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and other countries with significant Han Chinese populations, Chinese New year is also celebrated, and has, to varying degrees, become part of the traditional culture of these countries.

In Canada, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Canada Post Office issues Chinese New Year theme stamps in domestic and international rates.

In Malaysia, it is a 2-day holiday and the ethnic Chinese celebrate it in a very big way. There will be open houses and food and traditional Chinese New Year cookies will be served to relatives and friends who come avisiting.

The elders will give out red packets of money or "ang pows" to the younger ones who are not yet married. Inmates of old folks' homes and children's homes will also receive "ang pows", food and mandarin oranges. It is a time of great rejoicing.

My Friendly Dogs

My friendly dogs, Bam and Pete, putting on a good show. They are also excellent guard dogs.

Past Full Bloom

The Arabian Jasmine past full bloom and just about to wither, but with new buds coming out. This time the focussing is perfect, if I may say so.

Yellow Flowers

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Lovely yellow flowers in my neighborhood, but don't know what species.

Arabian Jasmine buds

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Determined to make good my Arabian Jasmine photos (below) which were not properly focused, I went back to the site but only to find that the flowers had faded away and had dropped off.

However, there were many fresh buds coming out and, as true Arabian Jasmine, were already heavily scented and fragrant even though they were only buds.

This time I used proper equipment - Olympus C740 Ultra Zoom camera in Macro mode.

Lone white flower

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Gorgeous picture of a lone white flower of unknown species. I will be thankful if anyone can tell me what species it is?

Common fragrant jasmine

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Two picture of another type of jasmine which is more common and flowers profusely, also heavily scented. These are popular with the Hindus who harvest them every morning to adorn them in their ornaments of worship.

Heavily scented Arabian Jasmine

A neighbour of mine has this flower plant called Arabian Jasmine or Jasminum Sambac. It is an evergreen shrub, that often reaches 5 feet high in pots.

The flowers are used in making perfumes and as a flovouring in tea. It is often called Arabian Jasmine due to its heavy scent.

It blooms all year round in the greenhouse. The flowers are white, 3/4 to 1 inch across and have a very powerful fragrance.

In Malaysia it is called Bunga Melor. It originated in India and was brought to Malaysia and Java around the 3rd century. It has since been widely cultivated throughout the Malesian region for its abundant heavily scented flowers.

It is the national flower of the Philippines, adopted by the government in 1937.

In Hawaii, the flower is known as "pikake", and is used to make fragrant leis. In South India, jasmines are strung into thick strands and worn as a hair adornment. In China, the flower is processed and used as the main ingredient inn jasmine tea.

Another beautiful bunch of flowers in the same garden. However, it is most unfortunate that I don't know its name. Anyone knows? Will be grateful if you can tell me.