Two is Always Better Than One...

Hhoopppeee Birrrsdayaa tue Euwww! Hhoopppeee Birrrrsaayaa tuuueee eeuuuwwww anda maneesa muurrraa! Thank you! I will be here all week. Please remember to tip your waiters and waitresses folks. Thank you and goodnight…

This is the phrase I kept anticipating was following the class’s singing. In most civilized parts of the world considered to be the Far East individuals have two birthdays. One birthday is their“small” birthday and the other, by means of elimination, would be termed their “big” birthday. When one of my favored students proclaimed to me a few days ago, “uhh today my “little” birthday, Teacher and I broughta theees (this) for youa” needless to say I was curious and confused. Mia handed me a little gift bag including a juice box, orange juice according to the picture accompanying the “blah blah” on the front, some type of what might be a cookie or cracker, and candy. Giving gifts to other people on one’s birthday in Taiwan is the “way we do it in Taiwan”. I am not certain if this way to celebrate a person is also practiced in other parts of Asia. I might have to teach in Japan next year to determine exactly how wide spread this birthday practice extends. I apologize, I am worse than Alice when it comes to following that darn White Rabbit. Shifting this exhortation forward…  Where was I? Oh yes, I remember now. Little birthday… Little birthday, I asked, what on God’s green earth is a little birthday? Mia dutifully embarked on her futile attempt to explain little birthdays versus big birthdays to me. She sighed and stated here in Taiwan, three words I have grown to loathe, everyone has two birthdays. She paused the explanation in order for her Taiwanese speaking brain to translate her thoughts into the English words necessary for me to understand. Fully comprehending her explanation, unfortunately, proved more difficult than trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. I gleaned only bits of solid information from our 10 minute chat on the way up to English class. I grasped here in Taiwan they have two birthdays, I put a hash mark in the “already knew that” column. I also understood one birthday was celebrated small and one was celebrated big. Again the hash mark was affixed firmly in the “already knew that” column. From that point the information I understood was unreliable, to say the very least, and I hadn’t placed one single hash mark in the column labeled “new information”. As we approached our classroom Mia told me to “hangs on” and she ran ahead of me and into the room. Since there are a large number of students, all wearing matching blue school uniforms, and having black hair I lost sight of Mia.

My Taiwanese co-teacher Judia greeted me as I unloaded my heavy bag from my person. I tapped into this rare gift a few seconds before the onset of English class to inquire about this whole birthday business. Judia thought for a couple seconds and expounded for me on Mia’s previous attempt to aid in my, what seemed to be daily, lessons about everything Chinese. She simply picked up her desk calendar and pointed out the two types of “monphs”. She also stated Chinese calendar doesn’t follow sun. I finished the next part of the discourse for her. I told her if the Chinese calendar does not follow the sun it must follow the only other heavenly body large enough to measure the passage of time, the moon. One would have thought I had discovered the location the ever illusive Fountain of Youth and brought her a small sip its water judging the manner in which she reacted to the addition of 1+1 in my brain. Needless to say, she was happy I understood her explanation.

Allow me to demystify the two birthdays in Taiwan. The Chinese follow what is called the Lunar Calendar. Yuup Skippy, this means they built their calendar tracking the moon’s movements. However, the balance of the world follows what is called the Gregorian Calendar, or simply a calendar that follows the sun’s movements. Two calendars equals two birthdays. The small and big terms are applied to the months in the lunar calendar. Due to weather and farming some months are “small” and some are “big”. The above is the extent of my understanding relating to the small and big terms used to refer to months in the lunar calendar. I even asked another native to explain the differences between the months and how their size is determined. I am ashamed to admit the additional clarification only muddied the waters further. However, celebrating two birthdays does sound very appealing, as long as the two birthday celebrations only add one year to your total age. Right?

Note of interest: If anyone wants to know when to celebrate their second birthday visit this site http://www.asia-home.com/china/cncaps.php  and follow the directions. The site calculates your lunar birthday and even gives you the animal who rules your birth year. If anyone is curious my lunar birthday is April 1^st and the Wood Tiger rules my year.   

Wood Tiger

 

Jing-Xi’s Lesson for the Day: The thought of celebrating two separate times to acknowledge one’s birth is an alien concept to me. The practice of giving gifts to others on one’s birthday is even more foreign. I believe this might be due to the feelings dread and despair that fills me as my birthday approaches every year. Observing the jubilation a birthday brings in this country, let alone two birthdays, has caused me to pause and consider my feelings about birthdays and even life itself. A birthday is reason to celebrate. Every person is special and adds their unique brand of crazy to this world. When my birthday circles around this year maybe I will apply the adage “this is the way we do it in Taiwan”, and send out birthday cards.