Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year's Eve, and it is celebrated on New Year's Eve with a Grand Dinner. It can be very similar to Chinese New Year's in many ways:

1) Make lots of noise.  Chinese like to burn firecrackers, bang drums and pots to scare the ghosts and bad spirits away.  Scots will fire off cannons, sound sirens, bang pots and make lots of noise, I think just for the excuse of making noise.

2) Pay off your debts.  Chinese like to ensure that you start off the New Year with no debts hanging onto your personal feng shui.  I think the Scots do the same but especially to ensure that they aren't paying anymore interest.

3) Have lots of good food.  Eat lots and be merry.  Both Scots and Chinese enjoy eating, hosting their friends and visiting their friends.

4) Party on dude!  In Asia, Chinese New Year celebrations will go on for days, lasting up to a week!  Sort of like Boxing week sales in Canada.  In Scotland, the Scots are proud partyers and are well known for making parties last for days on end.

Come to think about it… the above traditions can be found in many cultures… I guess the Scots and Chinese are more alike than different with lots of other cultures too!

Tickets will soon be available through the Firehall Arts Centre, after Jan 5th.  You can use Visa or Master Card to reserve your tickets. 

There will be a small service charge for this service.  Your tickets will be reserved in advance and wating for you at the Will Call line at the Flamingo Restaurant on Fraser St.  Be sure to arrive early before 6pm to avoid the line up rush so you can grab the best seats at your table and have a dram of Glenlivet in hand or Scottish lager while the latecomers gasp in amazement.

Phone Firehall Box Office: 604-689-0926  

www.firehallartscentre.ca

Firehall Arts Centre is a wonderful Vancouver Instituition dedicated to presenting theatre with an emphasis on multiculturalism.  Executive Director Donna Spencer will also be donating 2 sets of tickets to upcoming shows for the raffle draws at Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner events.

This will include The Plum Tree, directed by Adrienne Wong – one of the co-hosts for GHFC Dinners.  Adrienne was also a paddler and flag grabber on the Gung Haggis Dragon Boat team for 2003.

It is the longest night of the year, the shortest day of the year. It is Winter Solstice – known in mandarin as Dong Zhi.

One of my favorite winter solstice adventures was going to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens yesterday.  It was very magical.  The Garden was lit with candles and Christmas lights – otherwise – you never see the garden at night because of its early closings.

One of the real coolest things they do is to create lanterns for the bare trees.  In each lantern are leaves that fell from the trees during autumn… so they are in effect, hanging the leaves back on the trees – with lights!  Very Cool!

There was music at the Gardens… Erhu (Chinese violin) player Ji Rong Huang was playing traditional Chinese and Western tunes in the Water Pavillion of the Gardens.  I bought two cd's by Ji Rong… I have to love this guy!  First of all, his name is Huang (the Mandarin version of Wong), secondly – He played with Harry Connick Jr. one time, when Harry met him by chance at the Horseshoe Bay Ferry terminal and invited Ji Rong to join him onstage at the Orpheum with his band.  Third, he plays Western music, and we agreed to get together sometime to do a duet of Hungarian Dance No. 5.

The Dr. Sen Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens writes that:

“In China, the winter solstice festival, dong zhi, is a time when friends and family gather together, exchange gifts, and eat, drink, and laugh long into the deep, dark night to mark the rebirth of yang qualities of light and warmth as winter waxes and spring approaches. Enjoy a magical celebration of Dong zhi at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sun Classical Chinese Garden & Public Park as we host the Secret Lantern Society's 11th Annual Winter Solstice Festival for Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside from 6:30 – 10:00pm. “

see my more detailed 2004 post about Chinese Winter Solstice which includes discussion about my past visits to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garen

Tickets are now printed and available. They look GREAT! 2004 Advanced price is $50 – $60 if you get your tickets at the door. Reserved tables are $500. 

The sooner tables are reserved and paid for – the closer these tables will be to the stage. Single ticket purchases will be assigned to tables in the order they are purchased. As soon as a table is filled – it will count as a reserved table. This will allow both groups and singles to sit closer to the stage the sooner they purchase their ticket.

For Information – call me at 604-987-7124

Tickets now available at Firehall Arts Centre Box Office phone 689-0926 www.firehallartscentre.ca. Service charge for Visa or Mastercharge.

Heather Pawsey will join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy musical line-up for January 25th. She is a noted Soprano recently seen in Vancouver Opera's “Electra” as the Confidant. For the Dec 7th show “Music and Tea From Taiwan,” composer Gordon Chin specifically wrote Leaves Imprint with Heather in mind, and dedicated it to her and the Turning Point Ensemble… and besides all the awards, noted gigs, tours and radio performances – Heather is tres cool! Heather also LOVES Robbie Burns dinners. She looks forward to singing songs in both Mandarin and Gaelic. She secretly professes that Ye Banks and Braes and My Luv is Like a Red Red Rose are her favorite Burns songs… Heather has hosted her own Burns dinners, and can recite Address to a Haggis as well as Robert Service, a noted Scots-Canadian who wrote the immortal words: There are strange things done in the midnight sun…

Check out this FREE program at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre on Lonsdale Ave.

December 7th, Sunday, 7:30pm.

Heather Pawsley (of Scottish ancestry) is singing 3 songs in Mandarin + a new song especially composed for her.

Heather will be one of the performers at Gung Haggis Fat Choy on Jan 25th, 2004.

more details to be posted later…