ASK!

Title: Blood on My Hands
Author: Todd Strasser
Publisher: New York: Egmont USA, 2010.
Call No.: Y STR
Summary: At a high school party, a girl finds her best friend murdered, only to be discovered holding the weapon and accused of the crime.

Title: Trash
Author: Andy Mulligan
Publisher: Oxford; New York: David Fickling Books, 2010.
Call No.: Y MUL
Summary: Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country’s dump.

Title: The Extraordinary Cases of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Publisher: London: Puffin, 2010.
Call No.: Y DOY
Summary: The great detective solves eight baffling cases involving a family curse, a secret code, a missing racehorse, an impossible murder, a stolen jewel, blackmail, six identical sculptures, and a missing soccer player.

Title: Something Rotten: a Horatio Wilkes mystery
Author: Alan Gratz
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Dial Books, c2007.
Call No.: Y GRA
Summary: In a contemporary story based on Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Horatio Wilkes seeks to solve the murder of his friend Hamilton Prince’s father in Denmark, Tennessee…Hamilton Prince’s father has been murdered, according to a hidden video message. Horatio Wilkes, Hamilton’s best friend, is visiting the Prince mansion when the video turns up. The guys need to find the killer before he strikes again.

*Please click on the title link to check on the availability and locations of the books.  
The images of the book covers are the copyright of the respective publishers.

Originally answered by January Yeo, Associate Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

Traditionally, the second day of the New Year is known as the son-in-law day as husbands are required to escort their wives back to her family home, bearing New Year’s gifts for the woman’s parents. There may be practical reasons for this custom: wives would be required to stay home to receive and serve the deluge of guests that would come new year visiting. Furthermore, if every married woman returns her mother home on the 2nd lunar day, then the husband’s house would be left without women to entertain his married sisters who return home, as well as other guests. Therefore, some married women return home on the third lunar day.

 An old Chinese superstition offers another explanation: it is believed that a woman who left her house on the first day of the New Year would be plagued with bad lack for the rest of the year ahead. In addition, married daughters were not allowed to visit the home of her parents as this would bring them bad luck and cause them to become poorer. It is not known how these superstitions arose.

References:

All Rights Reserved. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009

Title: Exploring traditional Chinese festivals in China
Author: Gai, Guoliang
Call No.: 394.26951 GAI

Title: Disappearing Customs of China
Author: Qi, Dongye
Call No.: English 394.26951 QI

The dates of Chinese festivals are calculated according to the Chinese lunar calendar, which comprises 12 lunar months of either 29 or 30 days. Each lunar year therefore lasts no longer than 355 days, ten days less than the Gregorian year. To keep the two calendars in synchrony with one another, it became necessary to ‘add’ an extra month every two or three years, in a manner similar to the convention of creating leap years. Known as ‘intercellary months’, these additional months ensure that the Lunar New Year continues to be celebrated at approximately the same time year after year.

Because the lunar year ‘ends’ before the Gregorian year, the subsequent lunar year ‘starts’ before the old Gregorian has come to an end. This has the effect of causing the New Year to fall on progressively earlier days. If this continued indefinitely, unfortunate Chinese would find themselves celebrating the New Year earlier and earlier. If the difference between the two calendars was allowed to grow, there would be years when the Lunar New Year would fall during the December of the previous year, or even earlier.

However, every three years, the difference between the two calendars is compensated for by the addition of a intercellary month. After every ‘leap’ year, Lunar New Year would once again occur later in February, before falling on earlier dates in subsequent years.

Calculations for the dates of the New Year from 1864 to 2043 have been made and are available in the book The Comparative Solar and Lunar Calender. Within this time period, the earliest CNY recorded falls on 22 January (1879, 1898, 1909, 2004) while the latest is on 20 February (1920, 1985)

Reference:

All Rights Reserved. Singapore: Landmark, 1997

Title: The comparative solar and lunar calendar (864-2043)
Author: Goh, Kee Seah 
Call No.: RSING English 529.3 GOH

 
As Chap Goh Meh literally means ‘15^th night’, it is likely that it shares historical roots with yuan xiao jie, the 15th and final day of the lunar new year . Historically, in Chinese tradition, the 15^th day of the first lunar month has been a joyful day of festivity and celebration, with families gathering in the streets to enjoy elaborate lantern displays. The day’s festivities provided one of the few chances for young singles to meet one another face to face, a situation not unconducive to the creation of romance. This aspect of the celebration seems to have been amplified in the Southeast Asian version of the festival

During the time of dynastic rule in China, curfews were regularly imposed to safeguard the populace. The Lantern Festival, or yuanxiaojie, was one of the few days in a year during when members of the public could be outdoors after dark. This privilege was even extended to unmarried girls, who were traditionally prevented from leaving their family compound on other day. As time passed, social conventions became less stringent; however, the festival retained its social aspect. Young people were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love, while matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples.

Today, chap goh meh is popularly thought of as an auspicious time to find a life partner. Observed in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, the occasion is considered to be a night of courtship akin to Valentine’s Day, a day celebrating love and affection between lovers. The emblematic ritual of tossing oranges into the river began in Penang; however, its origins are shrouded in mystery. The only reference that I could locate suggests that it started off as a sacrificial ritual. The book Through the Bamboo Window describes unmarried young ladies desiring marriage “throwing oranges, groundnuts…and pebbles into the water as they wish for their heart’s desire” (14).

References:

Title: Through the bamboo window
Author: Comber, Leon
Call No.: English 390.08995105951 COM

According to Wei Liming’s Chinese Festivals, the traditional festivals of China came into being after the development of astronomy, horography and mathematics during the time of the Han dynasty (206 BC to AD 220). During this period, the major traditional festivals that we know today became an important part of Chinese culture, though it was only during the Tang dynasty (618-907) that they became fully removed from their primitive roots.

Festivals of Ethnic Chinese Minorities states that, in addition to the Han Chinese, the lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is celebrated by a total of 38 different minority groups, including the Mongolian, the Tibetan, Miao, Dong and She. Numerous ethnic minorities in China adopt the custom of celebrating this important festival; however, the diversity of cultures, environments and societies across minority groups mean that the festival is celebrated in a variety of ways, at many different times.

Some ethnic groups such as the Manchu and the Daur, adopt a calendar similar to the one used by the Han Chinese and celebrate the New Year at the same time, though individual customs and traditions differ. For instance, for the Daur festivities last for five days, rather than the fifteen in Han custom.

Other groups have their own calendar systems that are based on each group’s perception of time and season. For instance, while the calendar of the Khalkas is based on a division of time into 12 year cycles similar to Han Chinese, the Khalka Spring Festival is celebrated on the eleventh, rather than the first, day of the first month in the lunar year. The Kazakhs base their spring festivities on an ancient Kazakh calendar and take as their New Year the day of the Vernal Equinox, when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal in number.

For other minorities such as those in the regions of Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, festivities are similar in spirit to those of the New Year, though specific names and practices differ. For instance, the Mongolians regard white as a highy auspicious colour as it stands for purity, prosperity and happiness in their tradition. The New Year is thus known as the ‘White Festival’. Similar to the Lunar New Year, it is preceded by a thorough cleaning of the home, and celebrated with much feasting, visiting and the exchange of gifts of food and wine. The Miao people celebrate a flower festival on a selected day during the first lunar month, while the 11^th to 13^th days mark a courting festival akin to the Chinese ‘yuan xiao jie” or Lantern Festival. 

Other minority ethnic groups celebrated multiple New Years within a ‘year’. For instance, the Hani people have New Year celebrations in both the sixth and tenth lunar month.

References:

Title:  Chinese Festivals
Author: Wei Liming
Call No.: English 394.26951 WEI 

Title: Festivals of Ethnic Chinese Minorities
Author: Xing, Li 
Call No.: 394.26951 XIN