Salamanca celebrates the Chinese New Year

Salamanca will celebrate the Year of Pigs with a wide and interesting range of activities. The renowned sculptor Xu Hongfei, president of the Guangzhou Academy of Sculpture and director of the Chinese Association of Artists, is going to bring some of the sculptures from his collection "gorditas", for the first time in Spain, which keep happiness as a common thread.

Thirteen sculptures will be installed in Salamanca until 3 March and can be seen in: Plaza Mayor, Parque de Colón, Plaza Concilio de Trento, Plaza de Anaya, Patio de Escuelas, Plaza de las Úrsulas, Plaza de Santa Eulalia and Parque de La Alamedilla.In addition of the great exhibition of Xu Hongfei in the programming we will find: parades, dance, music, children's workshops and gastronomic demonstrations.

All activities are free of charge and, except for the sculptor's exhibition, will take place between 1 and 3 February.

There will be a gastronomic meeting in which four Chinese chefs with a Michelin star will go to the city of Charra. And, together with Víctor Gutiérrez, they will offer a gastronomic day dedicated to professionals in the sector, at the Chamber of Commerce, on Friday 1 February at 13:30h.

And on 2 February at 12 noon at the Central Market, they will give a live gastronomic demonstration of charra food with Chinese food, open to the public.

The students and teachers of the Center for Foreign Languages and Arts of Guangdong (Canton) will take part in an activity of dance and music on Friday 1 February at 9 pm in the Centre for Performing Arts and Music.

On the other hand, the San Blas auditorium will host a concert starring Chinese guitarists Su Erxun and Huang Chen, on 2 February at 8 pm.

The celebration will end with a show that will take place at the Teatro Liceo, on 3 February at 6:00 pm.

On the other hand, two workshops on calligraphy, traditional painting and papyroflexia have been organised at the DA2 (contemporary art centre), aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 12. They will take place on 2 and 3 February from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm.

And three parades of the dance group Leones y Dragones (Lions and Dragons) have been programmed, which will run through the streets of the centre of Salamanca.

Happy Chinese New Year! Kung hé fat tsoi!

Chinese New Year, COME AND CELEBRATE WITH US!

This week there is a special celebration on Friday the 31th of January ¡Chinese New Year! This festival is also known as the spring festival and is the most important festival in China. The 31th of January 2014 starts the year 4712, according to the Chinese calendar, which corresponds with the year of the Horse.

Horse people are active and energetic. They got plenty of sex-appeal and know how to dress. Horses love to be in the crowd, maybe that is why they can usually be seen in such occasions like concerts, theaters, meetings, sporting occasions, and of course, parties.

The horse is very quick-witted and is right in there with you before you have had the chance to finish what you are saying: he's on to the thought in your mind even before you've expressed it.

In general, the Horse is gifted. But in truth they are really more cunning than intelligent - and they know that. That is probably why, most of the horse people lack confidence.

Chinese believe that because horses are born to race or travel, all Horse people invariably leave home young. The Horse despises being pressured to act for the good of the group or made to feel guilty. No matter how integrated they seem to be, a Horse's inner self remains powerfully rebellious. Although they have boundless energy and ambition, Horses have a hard time belonging. The Horse is hot-blooded, hot-headed and impatient. Horse people are a bit of an egoist, well, selfish sometimes, that it is rare for them to interest themselves in any problems except their own. And though this egoist works only for themselves and for their own success, their work nevertheless benefits everybody.

The Horse is a worker, adepts at handling money and a good financier. But unfortunately, they are also famous for suddenly losing interest on something. In their relationship with the opposite sex, the Horse is weak. They will give up everything for love.

Being born a Horse, there are many contradictions in their character. Horses are proud yet sweet-natured, arrogant yet oddly modest in their approach to love, envious but tolerant, conceited yet humble. They want to belong, yet they are burdened by their need for independence. They need love and crave intimacy yet often feel cornered, pressured. But the truth is, the Horse is an individual, who depends only on their own wits and labour to get what they want.

FIND OUT YOUR SIGN, and what tells it about you?

It´s a period filled with a lot of celebrations and parties, which begins at new years day and ends with the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the first month. The festival is celebrated with fireworks, special meals and family visits. Everyone celebrates this spring festival, during the first three days of the festival.

During this festival all families pay a lot of effort to be together and to share a big meal. During these dates, public transport is overcrowded.

As in all festivals in China, this festival is also accompanied by the traditional cuisine. The dishes that are prepared for this day symbolize good luck.

To receive the "spring festival", the people clean their homes with old brooms which are thrown away afterwards. They decorate their houses with red cards with verses on it, New Year paintings on the wall and red lanterns. Fireworks and firecrackers are chipped, hoping to ward off bad luck and bring prosperity. The children receive money from their relatives and additionally shut down all tasks before new year which include paying off all their debts.

We celebrate this festival in a slightly more modest way, which does indicate that the party is not special! We are looking forward to welcome you with a typical meal from your home country to share with us. Don´t let us miss it!

Chinese New Year: The year of the Dragon

Happy New Year! Again?! Yup, although more than 3 weeks have passed by since the largest part of the world celebrated New Year (based on the Christian calendar), enough other religions and cultures celebrate New Year a complete different date (i.e. according to the Buddhist calendar, it’s already 2055!) Last Sunday, it was China’s turn. The year of the Dragon that follows the Rabbit has started and has been a massive celebration, at various places in the world. It is said that the Dragon brings prosperity, being a symbol for good fortune and great power.

For the Chinese, celebrating New Year means a long period full of festivities with friends and family. It is one of the few periods that the Chinese have some days off; public transport is packed as everyone travels through their huge country to spend the new year together with family. This results in the largest annual human migration in the world. Given the fact that there is quite a few Chinese students in Salamanca, the year of the Dragon has been celebrated here as well. Sunday night became an evening full of delicacies, where traditional Chinese courses such as dumplings were presented next to the western pancakes and pasta. Preparing dumplings (cooked ball of dough filled with minced meat and cabbage) is quite an art itself. It’s possible to create different shapes with symbolic meanings – but only if you got the right skills… Well, it tastes the same anyways J Talented or not, the empty plates at the end of the evening speaks to its success. A new and interesting experience of once again, a new year.