Thursday, December 9, 2010

Types of Leisure Programmes (E.g. festivals, events, sports, other recreational activities…)


Its time to Play, Enjoy & Shop!!

The people in Taiwan, like any other Asia country, celebrate festivals. However, it is the way the people celebrate their festivals that makes Taiwan unique. Some of the festivals might be new and uncommon to us, such as ‘Earth God Day’ and Cultural Opera’ festivals which are not seen in Singapore and many other countries.

Festivals

Taiwanese celebrate almost all the festivals in the lunar calendar.
 (1) Chinese New Year
The biggest event on the Taiwanese calendar, like everywhere else in the Chinese world, is the New Year. The New Year marks the beginning of spring. It is a festival of renewal. Thus, before spring arrives, all the households will have to clean their homes. For Buddhists, families will go to the temple to pray. 

2) Lantern Festival

Two weeks after Chinese New Year, the New Year season officially ends, and its closure is celebrated with the Lantern Festival. In many ways, it is a more dazzling public holiday than New Year itself. Streets, temples and parks in all the cities are lit up with lights, lanterns and electrified floats. 

(3) Earth God Day
The 2nd day of the 2nd month on the Chinese calendar is set aside to worship earth deities. People lay out special offerings to the gods in their local shrines, and Taoist temples hold more elaborate celebrations.

(4) Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon boat festivals are celebrated in the memory of Chu Yuan, a great poet who committed suicide in the river. Boat races have been held in his honour, and everyone will eat dumplings made of sticky rice and wrapped in leaves of bamboo. In the past, villagers throw dumplings into the river so that the fishes in the river will not eat Chu Yuan’s body.

(5) Ghost Month
The seventh month of the lunar calendar, which usually falls around August, is a time when the gates of the underworld are swung open, and the spirits are set free to roam the earth. In every street and alley, people burn spirit money to make the wandering ghosts happy, and make special offerings to their own departed kin.
Throughout the whole month, most Chinese refuse to go near water for fear of water spirits. Those foolish enough not to believe in ghosts might find it an opportune time to hit the beach.

(6) Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival is dedicated to the poetic beauty of the moon. Held on the full moon of the eighth month, it is celebrated through gatherings with friends and families to eat the mooncake.

 (6)Cultural Operas
Opera
One of the most rewarding cultural excursions in Taiwan is traditional Chinese Opera. Chinese operas are, of course, first and foremost stories. It can be stories from the past. In Opera, the actors and actress will have to paint their faces with colours and customer of the past
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Night Markets

In my opinion, Taiwan’s night market has also become one of its leisure programmes. Night market in our local term is ‘pasar malam’ which is also the same meaning as night market, local ‘pasar malam’ happens only once in a while.  The unique selling point of Night market in Taiwan is that it is there all year round. According to the name, it takes place at night and it is also in the night where there is a crowd of people. The night market has also become one of the tourist attractions in Taiwan. Night markets in Taiwan have become famous for their xiaochi foods (xiaochi roughly translates as "small eats" or finger foods).
Here are some of the Night markets in Taiwan:
Shida Night Market
 (traditional Chinese: 師大路夜市)
Shilin Night Market (traditional Chinese: 士林夜市), Shilin
Danshui Night Market, Danshui (traditional Chinese: 淡水夜市)
Miaokou Night Market (traditional Chinese: 廟口夜市)



Sports
The common sports found in Taiwan are:
·         Baseball
·         Basketball
·         Football
·         Rugby union
·          Volleyball

Baseball in Taiwan is the leading sports in Taiwan. It is well-recognized in the country. The Chinese Taipei baseball team is currently the fifth ranked baseball team in the world.


Here is a brief description of how baseball is played:
  1. Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square. 
  2. There are two teams, the batting and fielding team. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs.   
  3. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins. 
  4. Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out.  
Basketball is the most popular ball sport in Taiwan that people actually play
Football is not as popular as baseball or basketball in Taiwan, although it has a history of success at the Asian level

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