Chinese New Year (The Year of the Sheep}

Rota-Teller

Wednesday February 11, 2015

By Basil Dias

Attendance:        14 members and 3 guests

Anthem:              Gordon Brown

Grace:                  Mike Mushet

Toast to the Queen, Canada and Rotary:        Chair, President –Elect Gerd Wengler

Guests:     Joan Masson, Peter’s valentine, Jason (a friend of Wei-Chien’s) and guest speaker Jane Pang.

Announcements:              Jacob remined us of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra concert on May 2^nd, 2015 at the Salvation Army Citadel. Each Rotarian will be asked to sell 4 tickets for this amazing event, featuring Mozart.

                                            Basil announced that Carole Jones is in hospital with what may be liver cancer. Our prayers go out to Ralph and Carole at this time.

                                           Gerd reported on the Pre-Pets (president- elect training) this past weekend, also attended by Dhanni and Donna for the International Grants sessions. We heard about the up-coming Rotary Leadership Institute sessions, and the visit by R.I. President Gary Huang to the Richmond Hill Club on Tuesday March 24^th (cocktails at 6:00 P.M.)

Marbelous Draw:         Conducted by Alan Meredith, drawn by Wei-Chien and won by Frank Allison (only $5, the big pot is still available).

Sergeant at Arms:  
       Jacob introduced us to a pharmaceutical game, guessing which drugs were advertized in which commercials. I think the answers were sleeplessness and snoring, but the scribe may have dozed off. There were a few happy bucks, but the scribe was still dozing!

Saifoo introduced our guest speaker, Jane Pang, Principal of Clearview School of Arts & Culture.

 A recording of Jane’s presentation follows:

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/e71dfyygu1t75yr/Chinese%20New%20Year.MP3?dl=0

Jane, who speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin, comes from the southern part of China where the customs are somewhat different than the north. She spoke to us about the traditions associated with Chinese New Year, including the 12 Zodiac animals rotating to represent the different years.

This year of the sheep, alludes to peace, harmony and tranquility. Sheep are tender, polite, filial, clever, kind hearted and sensitive to art and beauty. The Chinese symbols for sheep are similar to those for beauty and compassion, and the word for sheep is similar to the word for sun.

Traditional customs include giving lucky money envelopes, paper cutting, the lantern festival (which marks the end of the 15 day New Year’s celebration), lion dances and Chinese dumplings which sometimes contain lucky money.

Kung Hey Fat Choy

Roland thanked Jane for an insiteful presentation, and Gerd presented an Operation Eyesight certificate.