Free Eleos Music GALA Concert at Westlake Village at 2pm Saturday, June 29, 2013

If anyone is looking for a music teacher or an excellent music education program, coming to Eleos Music's free Gala concert this Saturday at 2pm in Westlake Village will be a good start.  Families, including children, are welcome.  There will be a reception after the concert.

I am happy to share my own personal experience with the Eleos Music program for the past 4 years.  I should also mention that I do not personally benefit from attracting more students to this music program, but this program may be perfect for some families reading this blog :)

My children have been studying what I consider to be "Colburn-in-one-teacher" with Alexander Michael Tseitlin (Sasha) who, together with his wife, founded Eleos Music with the goal of providing the type of music education they wish they had with the music curriculum that they have put together!  

Eleos Music has two main campuses - one in WLA and the other in Conejo Valley.  All the string instruments, including guitar,and piano as well as voice, music history and theory (including listening and taking music dictation) and composition are taught.  My son, age 11, plays both the piano and violin and takes a one-hour lesson each week and learns both instruments at almost the same level.  My daughter, age 10, plays the piano and celloand takes 45-minute lessons.  Both have progressed to the Foundations level, learning instrumental techniques, music theory, composition and music dictation, with informal recitals every 6-weeks.

We are very pleased with the music program and I often recommend this compact and somewhat accelerated program to families looking for an excellent music program which you can check out at www.eleosmusic.com.

Students can study at both recreational enjoyment level and more seriously up to the proficiency and advanced (MA-equivalent) levels. My son has attended weekend music retreats in San Diego with private lessons with Mr. Tseitlin Sr.  Graduates of the proficiency program should easily qualify for college music scholarships as they would be able to play the concert and competition-level repertoire.  Next year, some Eleos students, including my son, will be participating at the International Music Festival in Germany.  Non-Eleos students can audition to qualify to attend this music festival too.  I don't know the exact pieces played by other soloists and guest soloists on Saturday, but my son will be playing Messenet's Meditation on the violin.

If anyone is interested in coming to see the dress rehearsals earlier, letme know since I will be there all day from 9am for the soloists' recordings and rehearsals to the the full orchestral rehearsal.

EVENT:  Free Gala Concert featuring soloists, ensembles and orchestra.

All welcome, especially families who want to check out the quality of music studied, learned and played at Eleos Music and to meet with faculty. The youngest students are around 5 years old, but some precocious learners have started piano earlier at 4.

Location:  Saturday June 29th at Westminster Presbyterian Church at
Westlake Village

Address:  Westlake Village, 32111 Watergate Road, Westlake Village,
CA 91361

2:00 PM - Concert
3:30 PM - Reception

Below is the press release from Eleos Music regarding the Gala concert and
Eleos Music..

============== press release from Eleos Music============

Eleos Music

Eleos Music Studios
P.O. Box 1268
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
www.eleosmusic.com
office@eleosmusic.com

(310) 285-8202

Rebecca Tseitlin, Marketing Director
cell: (805) 444-3485

Gala Concert

Eleos Music is a program designed to provide excellent and accessible
Classical music education. Our students are performers, composers, and
artists from the early to pre-professional years. The annual Gala Concert
celebrates the work our students have done throughout the year, and is a
free event open to the general public. The event draws students and
their families (between 80 and 140 attendees) as well as a number of
outside attendees and press. Guest artists often come to perform as well.
Eleos Music has two locations; one in West LA and one in Thousand Oaks.

The Gala Concert program includes:

3 orchestras
A 60-member choir
A selection of soloists
Guest Artists

The concert repertoire includes compositions by Schubert, Mozart, Vivaldi,
and Popper.  We expect to have prominent members of the LA classical
community present as well.

Who We Are

Eleos Music has 2 campuses in the Los Angeles area in Conejo Valley and West Los Angeles. We provide our high class of  classical music education in areas local to families. We strive to bring excellence in music education in an environment where students can thrive. Our students quickly become well-rounded, intelligent, and masterful musicians. Our students perform at our monthly recitals, are seated in top local orchestras, and demonstrate extraordinary musicianship.

Eleos Music faculty members are selected from today’s most promising
artists and musicians, and are extensively trained inhouse. This creates
one of the most unique elements of the Eleos Music program: continuity in
teaching content, style, and results.

Eleos Music closely partners with the California Institute of Music in San
Diego, and IMF Germany (an annual music festival in Germany).

History

Eleos Music was founded by a husband and wife team, Alexander and Rebecca Tseitlin. They founded their organization in 2007 in the locations of their own private studios (Conejo Valley, West Los Angeles, and Santa Clarita). Rebecca Tseitlin is a respected orchestral, chamber, and soloing musician from Thousand Oaks. Alexander Tseitlin is from a Russian family with a long and rich musical heritage that reaches back to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and Moscow University. Alexander and Rebecca authored their own comprehensive music curriculum which seamlessly integrates instrumental technique, musicianship, and music history. Their goal is to train a new generation of young musicians with a thorough grasp of music as a whole, who can perform, teach, and enjoy music for their lifetimes. They are committed to a high level of training and to providing
an encouraging environment for students to grow and learn. They have also developed a teacher training program which trains eligible students to teach others through the Eleos curriculum. Their faculty has grown to include two professors, one pedagogue, and three teaching assistants; a formidable faculty with which they are able to effectively develop a strong student body.

George Balanchine and Los Angeles Ballet's Balanchine Red Festival at UCLA Royce Hall this Sunday June 9 at 2pm

"We must first realize that dancing is an absolutely independent art, not merely a secondary accompanying one. I believe that it is one of the great arts. Like the music of great musicians, it can be enjoyed and understood without any verbal introduction or explanation ... The important thing in ballet is that movement itself, as it is sound which is important in a symphony. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle, not the story is the essential element. The choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience through the eye — and the audience, in its turn, must train itself to see what is performed upon the stage. It is the illusion created which convinces the audience, much as it is with the work of a magician. If the illusion fails, the ballet fails, no matter how well a program note tells the audience that it has succeeded."

So writes the foremost contemporary choreographer George Balanchine!   He was not only a gifted ballet dancer himself, debuting as a cupid at age 10 in Sleeping Beauty with Mariinsky Ballet Theatre, but he was a son of a composer and studied both the piano and music composition.  Read more about his background at this link, where this quote and the one below come from:  http://www.nycballet.com/explore/our-history/george-balanchine.aspx  

"He began studying the piano at the age of five and following his graduation in 1921, from the Imperial Ballet School (the St. Petersburg academy where he had started his dance studies at the age of nine), he enrolled in the state's Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and musical theory, including composition, harmony and counterpoint, for three years. Such extensive musical training made it possible for Balanchine as a choreographer to communicate with a composer of such stature as Igor Stravinsky; the training also gave Balanchine the ability to reduce orchestral scores on the piano, an invaluable aid in translating music into dance. ...  Igor Stravinsky, once described their association on one particular ballet as follows:

Balustrade, the ballet that George Balanchine and Pavel Tchelitchew made of the Violin Concerto, was one of the most satisfactory visualizations of any of my works. Balanchine composed the choreography as he listened to my recording, and I could actually observe him conceiving gesture, movement, combination, composition. The result was a series of dialogues perfectly complimentary to and coordinated with the dialogues of the music." Hofmannsthal once said to Strauss: "Ballet is perhaps the only form of art which permits real, intimate collaboration between two people gifted with visual imagination."

For a short video of the two of them in discussion and view short excerpts from two versions of Balustrade, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CV9vtFpbgo

For a list of Balanchine's works and more personal details on his life, see this Wiki entry:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Balanchine

If you would like to see Balanchine's dance choreography performed, these youtube videos will illuminate the ideas quoted above.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/HC3zW-K8AV91o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FixT33wXqk8  Diana Vishneva - Vyacheslav Samurov - "Rubies"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud8zVcHPnuM Selections from Agon with music by Stravinsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm_xxKPliwM La Valse with music by Ravel (rare entire ballet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FGRUjhVujg&list=PLBADED5419348EBC0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJUtKBoQrc&playnext=1&list=PLBADED5419348EBC0&feature=results_main

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN_YZ72hT34&list=PLBADED5419348EBC0&index=15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p93LUjOODfw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhzDZnrIlSE&list=PLBADED5419348EBC0 (amazing technique)

If you are in Los Angeles, come and join us on Sunday June 9 at UCLA's ROYCE HALL on our fieldtrip to see Los Angeles Ballet perform Balanchine Red Festival showcasing these three dances:

La Valse - A waltz of frenetic energy with a hint of doom.

Agon - Twelve dancers in black and white in a contest of dance.

Rubies - The embodiment of the gem's elegance and appeal.

 We will be having picnic lunch from 12noon, attend a talk about Balanchine at 1pm if you wish, and then see the show at 2pm.  Contact me at reallykf@gmail.com for details on this special and very affordable fieldtrip.  Limited tickets available and first come, first served :)

This Saturday June 8 at Getty Center - Renaissance Family Festival

One of our greatest delights of living in Los Angeles is enjoying the periodic family festivals at both the Getty Villa and Getty Center.  For the same parking cost of $15 for the day, you can enjoy special art workshops and special dance, music, drama, or story-telling performances related to the theme of the family festivals which is usually inspired by one of the special exhibits.  It does get more crowded, but well worth a visit on these special days.  Don't forget your address book if you wish to have your own specially-created "wish you were here" postcards sent by Getty Center to any part of the world :)

Little known is the fact I learned from a security staff near the taxi stand:  the first hour of parking is free.  You can drop off passengers inside the parking structure.  According to the link below, if you wish to visit both the Getty Villa and Getty Center on the same day, you can now "pay once, park twice" with your $15 parking.  I haven't tried that myself, so find out what parking evidence you need for the second museum.  Remember that Getty Center is closed on Mondays and Getty Villa is closed on Tuesdays.  Parking after 5pm is $10 and Getty Center is open till 9pm on Saturday and Sundays.  Getty Villa always closes at 5pm.

Check changes in visiting hours and parking policy at:
http://www.getty.edu/visit/hours/index.html#parking

This Saturday's festival is inspired by the exhibit on "The Gardens of the Renaissance."  In addition to their permanent exhibits, these are their current exhibits and their closing dates.  Enjoy your family day of  fun learning there this Saturday!

		Gardens of the Renaissance May 28–August 11, 2013
		In Focus: Ed Ruscha April 9–September 29, 2013
		Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990 April 9–July 21, 2013
		Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto March 26–August 25, 2013
		Looking East: Rubens's Encounter with Asia March 5–June 9, 2013
		The Life of Art: Context, Collecting, and Display February 7, 2012–Ongoing

	Brigid's Daughter

Family Festival Celebrating Gardens of the Renaissance

Date: Saturday, June 8, 2013
Time: 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Admission: Free; no reservations required.

Celebrate the Gardens of the Renaissance in this free daylong family festival. Create a garden of your very own or fashion a floral wreath at one the interactive workshops. Delight in the sounds of madrigals from the 15th and 16th centuries or listen to tales of distant kingdoms with renowned storytellers.

Ad Hoc Consort

COURTYARD STAGE

Ad Hoc Consort
10:30–11:15 a.m. and 2:30–3:15 p.m.
The Ad Hoc Consort is an eclectic group of musicians that enjoy playing and performing music from the Renaissance and medieval periods on instruments from those eras. Recorders, krumhorns, sackbuts, viols, shawms, and serpents make up what you'll see. Come experience the true sounds of the English Renaissance! 

Brigid's Daughter
Noon–12:45 p.m. and 3:45–4:30 p.m. 
Brigid's Daughters features Colleen Russell, Stephanie Molen, and friends. Dressed in beautiful Italian gowns, these performers set to entertain and delight you with music written in the Renaissance era in six different languages. 

	Country Garden Dancers

Country Garden Dancers
1:15–2:00 p.m. and 5:00–5:45 p.m.
A high-energy troop of English country dancers performs leaps and lifts in a swirling flash of color and sound. Join these lively lads and lasses in a step or two. 

MUSEUM LECTURE HALL

Flower Fairies: A Bouquet of Tales
1:00–1:45 p.m. and 3:30–4:15 p.m.
Storyteller David Prather employs a flowering humor, cultivated wit, and budding audience participation to bring flower-centric stories to full bloom! 


WORKSHOPS
10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Garden of Crafted Delights with Asuka Hisa (Museum Courtyard)
Create a Renaissance garden full of original floral and vegetal works of art in this site-specific participatory workshop. 

Floral Frames (Museum Courtyard) 
Use floral-pattern paper, botanic stencils, and tissue paper to create flowers to decorate a frame to display your postcard-sized art. 

Postcards (GRI Lawn) 
Create your own work of art using rubber stamps with floral patterns. We will mail your postcard anywhere in the world! 

Renaissance Wreath with Marianne Sadowski (Museum Courtyard)
Create a beautiful wreath adorned with fresh flowers and then parade around the festival grounds in all your glory. 

Celebrate Mother's Day with Hammer's Winged Migration documentary at 11am or an afternoon of piano music at 4pm with Richard Valitutto at Hilgard Ave

Celebrate Mother's Day with your family with this IMAX-like experience of a bird's eye view of the world as they migrate at the Billy Wild Theater in Hammer's Museum at 11am or enjoy an afternoon of piano music with Richard Valiotta from 4pm at the Italian Cultural Institute at Hilgard Ave near UCLA.  This Italian Institute offers free movies and music and a place to learn Italian.

Details below:

Winged Migration (2001)

May 12, 2013 - 11:00 am

Billy Wilder Theater

Free Admission!

"A film that will leave you dreaming about what it would be like to step off the edge of the world and discover you could fly." — Washington Post

Directed by Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats

This thrilling documentary transports audiences to each of the world's continents to intimately experience the adventure undertaken by countless birds in their natural migratory journeys. Breathtakingly beautiful, the film offers scientific insights and technical wizardry, through a true bird's eye view of the spectacle of nature.

35mm, color, 91 min.

Recommended for ages 7+

FREE Admission!

Watch the trailer at http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2013-05-12/winged-migration-2001

PART OF: 

 Family Flicks

Sunday afternoons  of piano music at the Italian Cultural Institute   Free Admission May 12 at 4 pm RICHARD VALITUTTO         ~ Program ~ William Duckworth from Time Curve Preludes (1979) Maura Capuzzo Portami con te nel mattino vivace (2013)  Salvatore Sciarrino Perduto in una città d'acque (1991) Alvin Curran Inner Cities III (1994-96)  Giovanni Verrando "Second born unicorn, remind me what we're fighting for" (2002)  Ottorino Respighi Notturno (1896) Jake Rosenzweig Three Piano Dances (2013)  Morton Feldman Nature Pieces (1970) Michael Finnissy excepts from Verdi Transcriptions (1972 - 2005) and  Gershwin Arrangements (1975 - 88) "Richard Valitutto was the vivid soloist in Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques,  musically conveying exotic birds in crazy song."  Mark Swed (Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2013)   Italian Cultural Institute 1023 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles CA 90024 3:45 PM Doors open 4 PM Concert Light refreshments to follow Please RSVP to rsvp.iicla@esteri.it by 5/10   CURRENTLY ON VIEW AT THE IIC SALVATORE EMBLEMA: TRANSPARENCY A survey of works by Italian painter Salvatore Emblema (1929-2006) will be on display at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood, until May 31, 2013. The exhibition, titled "Transparency," has been curated by American art critic Peter Frank and organized by the Museo Emblema of Naples with the collaboration of the Italian Cultural Institute.   Until May 31 Mon - Fri 10-1 and 2-5; Sat 10-2

IIC Los Angeles 1023 Hilgard Avenue Los Angles CA 90024 (310) 443-3250 iicla@esteri.it  www.iiclosangeles.esteri.it  LIKE US ON   Download the IIC January - June 2013 calendar of events  Join Our Mailing List!  Start receiving our monthly newsletter and event announcements

This Sunday April 28, 2013, at UCLA - become an Architect at Fowler Museum from 1pm and enjoy a young person's treat at American Youth Symphony at Royce Hall at 4pm

Enjoy a double feature visit to UCLA this Sunday!  From 1pm to 3pm, bring your family to Fowler Museum to be an architect!  Create your building and add to the dream miniature neighborhood created collaboratively which will be projected on the wall!! This event will be in the Deutsch Seminar Room instead of the regular courtyard.  but see the related photographic exhibit on monuments in former Yugoslavia which inspires this art project :)

Kids in the Courtyard: Become a Giant Architect

Collaborate on a miniature dream neighborhood with artist Yelena Zhelezov. Take inspiration from fantastical Los Angeles architecture and Jan Kempenaers’s photographs of monuments on display in Spomenik, then experiment with clay to construct your ideal building. Add your building to the others created and see a community come to life! Finally, Zhelezov will use a camera to project this fanciful landscape onto a wall as participants further embellish the scenes depicted there. The program will take place in the Museum’s Deutsch seminar room.

EVENT DETAILS

Kids in the Courtyard: Become a Giant Architect
Guest artist: Yelena Zhelezov
Sunday, April 28, 2013
1-4 pm
Free program

After the Fowler's creative event on the same day, walk over to Royce Hall before 4pm to enjoy a wonderful musical treat at UCLA Royce Hall for free.

American Youth Symphony is the premier young musicians' orchestra in Los Angeles and their concerts are always free and priority seating is given to supporting members of the AYS.

Besides the Bach double concerto for two violins and Beethoven's Symphony no: 7, the great treat for families new to orchestral music is Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
"as a way of showing off the tone colours and capacities of the various sections of the orchestra.  In the introduction, the theme is initially played by the entire orchestra, then by each major family of instruments of the orchestra: first the woodwinds, then the brass, then the strings, and finally by the percussion. Each variation then features a particular instrument in depth, in the same family order, and generally moving through each family from high to low. So, for example, the first variation features the piccolo and flutes; each member of the woodwind family then gets a variation, ending with the bassoon; and so on, through the strings, brass, and finally the percussion.  After the whole orchestra has been effectively taken to pieces in this way, it is reassembled using an original fugue which starts with the piccolo, followed by all the woodwinds, strings, brass and percussion in turn. Once everyone has entered, the brass are re-introduced (with a strike on the gong) with Purcell’s original melody while the remainder continue the fugue theme until the piece finally comes to an end after building up to a fortissimo and Maestoso finish."

For more info, learn more at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Person's_Guide_to_the_Orchestra
To hear the full length piece, go to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbvhU22uAM

You can get tickets by clicking the icon below.  Or for a small donation to our Orang Utan Sanctuary Fund,
email me at reallykf@gmail.com if you would like me to get tickets for you.  Please state the number of tickets you would like to have.

American Youth Symphony Alexander Treger, Music Director  Sunday, April 28, 2013, 4 pm | UCLA's Royce Hall For free tickets, click here We are showcasing the entire orchestra in this fun, family-friendly program (recommended for ages 10+).  This program is part of the city-wide celebration of Benjamin Britten's centenary.

Join us on Space Day this Saturday April 20 - El Camino College from 9am to 1pm

For over 10 years, our family have been learning from a working astronaut who come to El Camino College on Space Day each year to share his or her experiences in space and while training.  This year marks the 27^th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger accident that took the lives of the seven crew members including Ellison Onizuka.  We have met male, female, American as well as foreign astronauts over the years and you can follow up with a follow-up session to meet the astronaut and ask questions close up.  This year, you will meet Dr. Jeanette J. Epps - for more details, see this link: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/epps-jj.html

While recommended for middle school students and older, elementary students interested in science can fully enjoy almost all the breakout sessions focusing on various themes.  The most sought-after sessions are usually taken by those who stand in line as early as 6.30am or 7am.  By 8am check-in time, the line is pretty long, but the In-and-Out lunch tickets are guaranteed for the first 800 students in line.   I have been going to Space Day for many years and I always try to get there by 7am and am able to get six tickets for each session to share with others in my group.

This year, since my family and I are fundraising to support the orphaned Orang Utan in Sepilok Sanctuary in Borneo, I am asking for a $10 donation per family so that you don't have to stand in line for the breakout session tickets and can come to El Camino College as late as 8.30am in time to get a good seat in the auditorium for the 9am astronaut presentation after getting your breakout session tickets from me.  If you are joining my group, please meet me inside Marsee Auditorium near the water fountain at between 8.15am and 8.45am.  Each student can get one Session A and one session B ticket (two total) and a lunch ticket. No tickets are needed for the astronaut's presentation and for the hands-on experimental tables outdoors.  Parents do not need tickets and can stand in the back of each session except for the Planetarium session if you wish to enter the Planetarium with your children.  My group usually meet for lunch right near the location of the Egg Drop Competition where you can see whose eggs survive or plop the three-storey-building drop!

I will blog about our forthcoming trip to Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary this summer when we bring our accumulated donations to adopt (via-financial support) as many orphaned Orang Utans as possible.  These are the infants who survive between felled tree trunks when their mothers die when hit during the logging of primary rain forests and cleared for palm oil production.  Our worldwide demand for hardwoods and palm oil for both our processed foods and our margarines as well as biofuel.

If you wish to join my group, please email me BY midnight Friday April 19 at reallykf@gmail.com and please give me your first, second and third choices of a pair of breakout tickets for Session A (after astronaut's presentation) and Session B (after Session A) from this list of choices.  First come, first served on the most popular choices.  I will email you instructions on donation payment if you wish to join my group.  Please note that all the tickets are free if you wish to stand in line yourself. All donations will go 100% directly to support the care of orphaned Orang Utans and their rehabilitation back to the forests.

The first breakout session will run from 10:45 to 11:30 and the second session will begin at 11:45 and end at 12:30. Lunch will follow the second session and the Egg Drop Competition will be presented during lunch.
  

See Tonight’s Stars, Planets, and Constellations (Planetarium Show)

PARTICIPANTS MUST BE ON TIME – PLANETARIUM DOORS SHUT PROMPTLY AT THE START OF THE SHOW!

Let’s Take a BirdWalk!

NASA Mars Missions

Chemical Magic Show

Dude, Where’s My Air?

Paint Making – Prussian Blue  (Participants must be in grade 5 or older)

Get Your Hands on Chemistry

Robotics Demonstration

Hypothesis Game

The Lost Recipe for "Dizzy Dog" Medicine

The Buzz on Space “Bugs”

El Mundo de los Insectos

The World of Insects

Rock and Fossil Discovery Zone

Solving the Mystery of the Owl’s Dinner

Satellite Demonstration

Paper Airplane Contest - Competencia de Aviones de Papel

Egg Drop Construction (Participants must be in grade 5 or older)

Puzzlers in Everyday Physics (Recommended for grade 6 and older)

WARNING – PARKING PERMITS REQUIRED FOR 2013

PARKING PERMITS ARE REQUIRED! – PLEASE PURCHASE A $2 DAILY PERMIT AVAILABLE AT THE ENTRANCES TO THE PARKING LOTS IN THE YELLOW DISPENSERS

Marsee Auditorium is located at the corner of Crenshaw Blvd and Redondo Beach Blvd in Torrance. 

Parking is located south and west the Marsee Auditorium. A map can also be found at

 www.elcamino.edu or www.elcamino.edu/about/directions.asp

Whether you join my group and support our Orang Utan fundraising OR NOT,

 this event is well worth your family time :)

\

Welcoming the Chinese Year of the Snake from February 10, 2013

Unlike most New Year celebrations, Chinese New Year is celebrated over 15 days!  Feb 10, 2013 marks the first day of the Year of the Snake.

It starts on New Year's eve when, traditionally, family members converge on the spring-cleaned ancestral home for the all-important family reunion dinner.  Auspicious red packets with money in even numbers are given to all unmarried family members. Children especially look forward to receiving their extra cash gifts from all married elders!  Traditionally, you are not considered a full adult until you are married and have the full responsibilities of having a spouse and later a family of your own.  Once married, you would be obliged to give red packets when you are respectfully greeted ---usually with a gift of Satsuma-type mandarin oranges --- by "Xin Nian Kuaile" (Happy New Year) or "Gongxi Fa Cai"  (May Prosperity Be Yours" - loosely translated!)

Local customs vary somewhat, and I highly recommend this site to fully appreciate the diasporic variations in Chinese New Year celebrations :   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

This Wiki site explains very well the differences between the Chinese lunar calendar and Gregorian calendar.  It also has a more accurate dating for the Chinese animal year you were born in.  Finally, it explains the symbolism of many traditional Chinese foods served during Chinese New Year ... many to do with everyone's wishes for a sweeter, happier, more prosperous, healthier New Year!

It always amuses me to see so much gambling among family and friends --- whether it is playing cards or mahjong --- that goes on during Chinese New Year.  From a cultural anthropological perspective, the Chinese generally believe in a time cycle of good and not-so-good luck.  Winning in gambling is often interpreted as one's good luck is on the up-cycle, which is very important for business persons contemplating new business deals or venturing into new investments :)  But, of course, playing cards and mahjong is also just plain social fun among friends :)

In the greater Los Angeles area, there are Chinese New Year parades in downtown Chinatown as well as in Monterey Park.  Here's the link to all the events in downtown Chinatown:

http://www.chinatownla.com/calendar.php?eventId=202

Don't miss Hammer Museum's celebration of Chinese New Year complete with a cultural appreciation of Chinese ensemble music, discussion of Chinese food, and some arts and crafts for everyone.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

February 10 2013, 02:00pm

Hammer Presents

SAVE TO CALENDAR

CHINESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL

CHINESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL

Ring in the Year of the Snake at the Hammer’s Chinese New Year’s Day festival. Make or decorate your own paper lantern, learn to write Chinese characters, discuss the Los Angeles Chinese food scene with Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. food critic Jonathan Gold, and enjoy a concert of traditional Chinese music by the Music of China Ensemble of UCLA. Ammo at the Hammer will have a selection of Asian teas and Chinese inspired fare available for purchase.

Co-presented by the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies and the UCLA Confucius Institute.