CUSTOMS

 //__Foot Binding by Alexandra L.__// In the world, ladies in many cultures have all hurt themselves to get pretty. The scariest example of this is foot binding in Chin a. This lasted for 1,000 years. Over this very long period of time, many women had their feet bound. It became a huge part of the Chinese culture. Women were not allowed to get married if their feet were not bound. Foot binding was the most severe part of suffering for beauty in history because of its harsh, long history and lasting effects.  The process of foot binding was gross and mean. It was done to a girl who was 3-11 years old. They had to stand on their heels, instead of their whole feet, which made them wobble around. This was thought to be pretty. This made women not be able to run away if their husbands hit them. The cloth that was used to bind their feet was wrapped tightly around the foot so it smooshed together. This was painful for the girls. This was done until the bones were all broken, and they were not growing anymore. A tiny foot was created. The women were in pain for the rest of their lives, and they suffered from other problems that were created from the process. Foot binding has a long history. There are "numerous folk lore and legends surrounding its actual origin" (BBC). This means that there are many stories that could explain why foot binding started. Some of these stories include the tale of the fox with bound paws, the claim of the clubfooted Empress, and the most likely story, the Prince who liked tiny feet and ordered his dancers to dance with bound feet. At first, foot binding only was done by the rich and royal people. But then it started to matter to the less rich people, so they started to do it as well. The rich just wanted to show off their wealth and how "in style" they were; that is why they did foot binding. Then the poor people started to bind their feet too. Soon, only women with bound feet could marry. The importance of foot binding caused it to be a huge part of Chinese culture throught history.
 * Chinese Customs**

The effects of this harsh process can still be seen in China today; women who are 70 years old or older have been found with injuries from the binding of their feet before the tradition was stopped. Because of the proc edure, women could not walk, squat, or do other forms of labor. It took Chinese people a long time to recover from this process. There aren't many women alive today that still have the tiny feet that binding caused. There has been proof that the practice is still done today in some distant villages of China. Hopefully this practice will no longer exist soon, and the scars that it has left will fade away.

Chinese foot binding is one of the most cruel forms of making yourself pretty in history. The process is horrible, the history is long, and the effects are lasting. Foot binding was everything from a fashion statement to permission to marry. It was a very big part of Chinese culture. Hopefully one day, women will not feel the need to change themselves in any way. Maybe they can learn to live the way they were born to be.


 * The Spring Festival (New Year) by Deanna B**.

Around the world, family is important to everyone. It is so important that the Chinese made a holiday to celebrate family. It is called the Spring Festival, or New Year. It is the most important celebration for the Chinese out of many. Everyone goes back home for the 15 day celebration to be with their family, like Christmas. Parades, feasts, and traditions are special pars of the Spring Festival. It is a happy time for the Chinese culture because family is celebrated, fun traditions are practiced, and festivities are done.

Family is always there for each other, no matter what. Relatives and ancestors are important to the Chinese culture. The Spring Festival is a great time for that because it is all about celebrating the importance of family and bringing good luckto your family members. During the Spring Festival, family members travel back to their original home for the 15 day holiday so everyone can be together during that great time. On the night before the celebration begins (that's the day everyone goes back to their families) a huge dinner is eaten together and everybody catches up. That sets up for the Spring Festival to begin.The Spring Festival is also about practicing fun traditions with your family.

There are different traditions and practices in different regions of China; however, the custom of giving red envelopes to family members is done all over. Red envelopes "are passed out during the Chines New Year's celebrations, from married couples to the elderly to an unmarried junior" (Wikipedia). The Red Envelopes are filled with money and given to smaller children especially. Red packet in Chinese means "the money used to suppress evil spritis" (Wikipedia), or the money that is used to get rid of the bad spirits. The Chinese believe that this will bring good luck for the new year to come. That is an important traditoin along with many others.



The Spring Festival is also popular for huge, exciting parades. The festivities each have a specific, important meaning to the holiday. There are tons of parades, traditions, and foods. In a Spring Festival parade there are exciting elements and parts that make it special, such as costumes, scary lions and dragons, and exploding firecrackers and fireworks. People look forward all year to the fun parades. The scary characters in the parade scare the evil spirits away, much like the red envelopes, so everyone has good luck for the upcoming Chinese year.

The Chinese Spring Festival is a great, fun, important celebration because of family, traditions, and festivites. This is the most important celebration in the Chinese culture out of many. It is celebrated happily for over two weeks. Every part of the celebration is careafully planned and prepared to make it the best it can be. Family is important in everybody's life and is celebrated during the Chinese Spring Festival.


 * Oracle Bones by Josh S.**

The Chinese are very spiritual people. We know this because they believe that using the bones of dead animals will let them see the future. It was extremely hard to do this and only a Priest could read the bones. The Chinese did not only use the bones to tell the future, but also to speak with dead family members and to tell the people if someone or something had to be killed.

Oracle bones were what the Chinese believed told the future. It made them extremely happy to know what was going to happen the next day. First they would find the bones of a dead animal or the shel of a turtle. Next, a priest would "carve the king's message or question into the bones and burn them until it cracked" (chinesefortunecalender.com). From there the priest would read the cracks in the bones that were left from being in the fire. The cracks would show the answer to the question. Some questions were if it was going to rain the next day or if it were going to be a nice day out. Chinese also used the oracle bones to speak to dead family members.

The oracle bones are what the Chinese used to talk to their dead family members. It was a gift to be able to talk to the dead family member or members so the Chinese needed to bring them gifts like food. Again they would write what they wanted to say into the bones and the dead family member would say something back and it would show up in the cracks left over from the fire. The oracle bones were used to predict the death of an animal or a person also.

Many people thought that oracle bones were used just to bring peace and joy but that wasn't always true. The oracle bones were used to tell the Chinese people if an animal or person needed to be killed, these were called sacrifices. The sacrifices were also used to make the dead family members happy. Sometimes there would be a lot of people killed to make them happy. It was a mean and scary way just to make someone who was dead happy.

Oracle Bones made many Chinese people happy. They helped tell the future, talk to dead family members, and tell if someone or something needed to be killed. It was easy to get the bones of the animals but it was not easy to read them. The Chinese would do anything to talk to dead family members. They were very spiritual people.


 * Works Cited**

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“Chinese Foot Binding.” BBC.co.uk. 13 June 2008. 22 Feb. 2009 .

Chinese Foot Binding Shoes. [Online Image]. Available http://7uncle.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/footbinding.jpg, March 23, 2009.

__Chinesefortunecalender.com__. 03 Apr. 2009 .

“Chinese New Year.” __Wikiedia, the free encyclopedia__. 20 Feb. 2009. []

Diagram of Regular Foot and Bound. [Online Image]. Available http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/FootBindingRxSchema2.gif, March 23, 2009.

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Oracle Bone. [Online Image] Available [], Apr 2, 2009

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