National Pie Day & Chinese New Year!

[Party Plan Girl]

Today is National Pie Day!

http://www.piecouncil.org/Events/NationalPieDay/

Other ways to celebration National Pie Day:

Share the ultimate "comfort food" by giving the gift of pie to a local "hometown hero".

Stop by your local police or fire department and let these local heros know that you appreciate all they do for your community.

If pie making is not in your schedule, stop by your favorite pie shop or grocery store and bring home a gift of love and joy for the whole family.

The coldest of January days will be warmed by a special pie dessert.
Indulge your co-workers with a gift of pie.

Reach out to new neighbors that you might not have met yet - it says you're thoughtful. Stay awhile to get to know each other and fill them in about the neighborhood.

Say thank you with a pie. Has someone done a special favor for you? Acknowledge the favor with the gift of pie.

Spend time with you children and make a pie together. You'll make great memories and your children will be so proud to serve the pie for dessert.


Chinese New Year
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other traditions of celebrating lunar new year, see Lunar New Year.
Chinese New Year

Also called Lunar New Year, Spring Festival
Observed by Chinese communities worldwide[1]
Type Cultural, Religious
(Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian)
Significance The first day of the Chinese calendar (lunisolar calendar)
2012 date January 23
2013 date February 10
Celebrations Dragon dances/Lion dances, fireworks, family gathering, family meal, visiting friends and relatives (拜年, bàinián), giving red envelopes, decorating with duilian (對聯, duìlián).
Related to Lantern Festival, which concludes the celebration of the New Year.
Mongol New Year (Tsagaan Sar), Tibetan New Year (Losar), Japanese New Year (Shōgatsu), Korean New Year (Seollal), Vietnamese New Year (Tết)
Chinese New Year
Traditional Chinese 農曆新年
Simplified Chinese 农历新年
Literal meaning Agrarian Calendar New Year
[show]Transcriptions
Spring Festival
Traditional Chinese 春節
Simplified Chinese 春节
[show]Transcriptions
This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節 (Pinyin: Chūnjié), since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: Zhēngyuè) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chúxī (除夕) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong,[2] Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines[3][4] , Singapore,[5] Taiwan, Thailand, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors. These include Korean (Seollal), Bhutanese (Losar), and Vietnamese cultures.
Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning in AD 2012 the "Chinese Year" 4710, 4709, or 4649.[6]