By Ruiling Feng
Chinese Language Intern

Some people call it Chinese New Year; some people call it Lunar New Year and some people call it Spring Festival “春节”. The first one is never my favorite way, as this festival is celebrated by several other countries, too; the second one is merely an explanation of what it is; the third one is the most touching one for me, because it is more beautiful, more commonly used to describe this festival and more related to my life in China. If asked how important it is to Chinese people, I’d like to take myself as an example. This is my first time in my whole life that I didn’t celebrate it with my family.

In China, both Solar Calendar and Lunar Calendar are widely used, but the latter is mainly popular for farmers. Although Spring Festival, more specifically speaking, refers to the first day of the lunar new year, the real celebration begins from the last day of the old year and lasts to the Lantern Festival which falls on the 15^th day of the first month of Lunar Calendar. Unfortunately, most people in cities have to say goodbye to the holiday and begin to work around the 6^th of the first month.

I have been asked many times what the most common custom for the celebration is. Apparently, eating is absolutely one of the right answers. Family reunion dinner, party with friends, visiting relatives, etc., all center around eating and talking. Every year, when the Spring Festival is coming, my parents will prepare a lot of vegetables, meat, drinks, snacks, while waiting for their children to come back. However, people in different regions may prepare different food. Dumplings are well-known worldwide, which doesn’t need further details. Many people are confused why Chinese people like connecting fish with the Spring Festival. There is actually an interesting custom about it. The Chinese idiom 年年有余 “Nian Nian You Yu” can vividly reflect this tradition. The pronunciation of “余” (surplus) is the same with that of “鱼” (fish), so the fish for the New Year Eve family reunion dinner will not be finished completely, leaving some for next year, indicating the wish “May every year ends with ample surplus”.

There are some popular decorations for Spring Festival, for example, couplets, paper-cut and New Year painting, kumquat trees, red lantern, upside down ‘Good Fortune’ signs. Speaking of kumquat trees, although it is basically more popular in Cantonese, there is an amazing story happening between Brother Orange, a Chinese man, and Matt Stopera, an American, there this year. Matt is probably the most well-known foreigner for Chinese citizens during this Spring Festival celebration. The story is about Matt’s lost IPhone that was bought by Chinese man who took some selfies, and Matt accidentally saw these photos on his new IPhone probably because they share one iCloud account. Anyway, a touching and exciting story began because of a lost IPhone. You can get more information about this story here.

For children, red envelope money is definitely one of the most exciting presents for Spring Festival. It is called “压岁钱” (yasui qian ) which means “suppressing ghosts money” and is normally given by the married to unmarried, but not necessarily so. I already began to give my nephews and nieces money for Spring Festival when I began to work, just to show my care and love. The receivers are wished safety and peace in the new year. In the northern part, the money can also be given without the red envelope. Red, nevertheless, is always the most common and popular color for Spring Festival celebration, reflecting people’s wish for happiness and prosperity.

Spring Festival in China is always associated with the Spring Festival Gala produced by Chinese Central Television, which is a necessary part of the celebration for many people. And it is often widely analyzed and commented by citizens after the show, which itself has also become a custom and entertainment these years.

As it is so widely celebrated in China, to mention every custom in one article is impossible. No matter how differently people celebrate it in different places, the themes of family reunion, friendship, worship of nature, love of peace, wish of happiness and prosperity, respect of traditions, etc. are commonly shared. That’s exactly the charm of this old yet developing festival and culture.

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This semester the Keck Center Student monitors will be using their time at the front desk to contribute to an ongoing digital humanities project. They will all be reading John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces and using digital mapping technology to represent all the places mentioned and visited in the novel, which is set in New Orleans.

Using maps in the humanities has risen in popularity lately. At Stanford University their Spatial History Project has used maps to explore Brazilian literature, Chinese migrant railroad workers, Chilean ecological issues, and many other fascinating topics. Here at Colgate, Carolyn Guile of the Department of Art and Art History has used maps to help her students explore historic architecture.

While these projects have been fruitful, their application within a class structure has can be difficult. The steep learning curve required to produce a map can be challenging for students, and take away from the time normally allotted for studying the primary course topic. Given that most mapping platforms are produced for use in other fields, no concise guide of how to use a map for a humanities class has been developed.

The goal of this project is not only to produce a mapped representation of a novel, but to also work out the possible stumbling blocks that could prevent a similar project to be integrated within the class. The aim is to produce the necessary guides and information for faculty and students to engage in a similar endeavor without having to spend hours of class time learning a new technology. The Keck Center will also have the ability to support similar project and trained staff to give technical support as needed.

We will be exploring different platforms, including Google Maps and ArcGIS Online. The student workers will also write about their experience for the Keck Center Blog and newsletter, to explain their own personal feelings about the positives and negatives of the project. By the end of the semester, we hope to provide a comprehensive guide to a humanities-based digital mapping project on the Keck Center web site.

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By Vika Abramova
Russian Language Intern

Why do Russians chant “gorko” (bitter) at a wedding reception? 

At the beginning of December 2014 my brother Anton got married and had a wedding reception back in my home city of Perm, Russia. I decided to arrange a skype session between my Intermediate Russian students, the newlyweds and the guests at the wedding reception involving the students in real-life cultural experience.

In Russia, weddings tend to be done on a grand scale. The reception of a Russian wedding typically takes place in a restaurant or the home of the bride or groom’s family and tend to last more than one day with the average being about two days. A Russian wedding is a great celebration with plenty of food, drinks, toasting, and dancing. A toastmaster, or “tamada”, is hired for the reception to conduct toasts, supervise games, and entertain the guests.

Both the newlyweds and the students were excited to meet via video. The couple was pleased to receive congratulations across thousands of miles while the students were happy to practice their Russian speaking skills congratulating my brother, his wife and all the guests with this special occasion. The Skype to the newlyweds was a lot of fun. The Russian students raised cups with juice to toast the newlyweds and proposed long toasts according to Russian tradition. The students also learned about some of the traditions at Russian weddings.

As the students finished making toasts one of the guests at the reception suddenly yelled out the word “Gor’ko” (bitter) to the newlyweds and the couple started to kiss each other. I asked the puzzled students to support the guests with chanting the same word, over and over again, and explained the tradition afterwards. No Russian wedding can go without people yelling “Gor’ko” to the bride and groom. This is not a sign of displeasure at the food: it is a signal, after which bride and groom must stand up and kiss each other. The Bitter Kiss is a Russian wedding tradition. For the first toast held, the guests will drink from their glasses and then they will start chanting “Gor’ko” (meaning that the drink is bitter) and the couple then have to kiss to make the drink “sweet.”

Guests usually shout “Gor’ko” after every toast or just when they want the couple to kiss. So, every five or 10 minutes one of the guests will begin chanting: “Gor’ko! Gor’ko! Gor’ko!” The rest of the guests will join in. Once they made the newlyweds kiss, everybody begins counting very slowly to see how long the kiss will last. It is generally considered that the more the guests yell “Gor’ko”, the happier the couple’s life will be

Congratulations to Anton and Lena! Wishing that your marriage will be as happy and beautiful as your wedding.

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The Keck Center will be hosting its first Language Exchange night. Come practice your language skills while helping others learn your languages. Anyone who speaks or is learning Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, or any other language is welcome.

Food will be provided as well as some conversation prompts to help focus on specific grammatical needs.

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