HIT->Chinese New Year bats

[Laura Richards <LERich7@AOL.COM>]

Dear netters,

I got several responses to my question about the significance of bat with
respect to the Chinese New Year.  And I printed those off, gave them to the
art teacher (who'd originally asked that question), and deleted your reponses
from my computer.  BUT fortunately, the son of a netter sent this answer to my
question today and this is what he had to say:
-----
The main Chinese dialect, Mandarin, is a language full of puns.  There is a
limited number of sounds in the Chinese language, even counting combinations,
and so variations are made by tone of the word.  Because of this, there are
many words which sound alike but may be off by a tone.  For example, the word
for 4 (si, falling tone) sounds the same as the word for death (si, low tone),
so 4 is an unlucky number in China; there are many hospitals and hotels that
go straight from the 3rd to the 5th floor to avoid the unluck connotations.

One of these puns is the word for bat.  Bat in Mandarin (fu) sounds like two
words pronounced fu which mean wealth or great happiness.  Because of this,
the bat has become a visual pun for "wealth" or "happiness"  and so is a
favored symbol at New Years.  A similar visual pun is fish (yu) which sounds
like the word for "abundance," so you will frequently find fish part of the
New Years meal (though it is not eaten until the second day or you'd be eating
the family's luck!).
-----
The other responses I received said pretty much the same thing.  I need to
remember to post hits  EVERY TIME I ask a question.  There's bound to be
someone who'll be intested in the same topic.

Take Care.

Laura Richards
Librarian
Fox River Grove School District 3
Fox River Grove, IL  60021
LERich7@aol.com

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