Making Sense: Language and Translation blog » New Year http://www.worldaccent.com/blog News, Opinion and word of mouth from the world of language and translation Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:15:15 +0000 en hourly 1 Chinese New Year fit for the credit crunch? http://www.worldaccent.com/blog/2009/01/chinese-new-year-fit-for-credit-crunch.html http://www.worldaccent.com/blog/2009/01/chinese-new-year-fit-for-credit-crunch.html#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:34:00 +0000 admin http://www.worldaccent.com/beta/2009/01/chinese-new-year-fit-for-the-credit-crunch.html Yesterday saw the start of the Chinese New Year, celebrating the Year of the Ox. The festival begins on the first day of the first lunar month of the Chinese Calendar. This calendar far pre-dates the internationally used Gregorian calendar, with evidence of its use as far back as the second millennium BC.

Naturally London will be the scene for several New Year celebrations, including a parade, stalls and dances in central London on Sunday 1 February. Last year’s celebrations saw 50,000 people attend the grand parade and welcoming ceremony in Trafalgar Square. At WorldAccent, we have been busy with various posters and adverts expressing clients’ new year wishes – mostly written in Traditional Chinese for a UK audience.

Once the celebrations are over, what might this Year of the Ox bring us? The Ox is thought to signify prosperity but through fortitude and hard work.

Furthermore, according to tradition, the Ox is never extravagant. One contemporary interpretation of this facet is that an Ox is nervous of living off credit cards or being in debt. In the on-going credit crunch, perhaps this will truly be the year of the Ox?

• Jim Dickson is a director of WorldAccent Translation, London

]]> http://www.worldaccent.com/blog/2009/01/chinese-new-year-fit-for-credit-crunch.html/feed 0