The Chinese Year of the Monkey

The Chinese New Year begins on February 8th this year. It will be the Year of the Monkey. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac and the Monkey is the 9th animal.  Every 12 years it's the year of the monkey. There are also 5 elemental signs given to each year. They are Gold

The [...]

The Four Gentlemen of Chinese Ink Wash Painting

What are the "Four Gentlemen"? From old China, "The Four Gentlemen" is a term used to refer to four specific subjects (orchid, bamboo, plum blossom, chrysanthemum) which are traditionally some of the first subjects the student of Chinese ink brush painting learns. Each [...]

Learn 40 Languages for Free on the Internet

Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages. Here are some of the languages you can find links for... Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, [...]

Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years

In many parts of the world, the foods eaten on New Years Eve and New Years Day have important symbolic meanings. These symbols seem to fall into several major categories. The first class symbolizes financial prosperity. This type of food is round like coins. Often, the dish will be round beans, [...]

International Scouting Campfire Songs – “Can you send us one from your country?”

Larraine wrote to me looking for Scouting Campfire Songs from around the world. Here's what she wrote, followed by my response with some suggested songs and sites to go to for help: Dear Mama Lisa, It has been suggested that I contact you with my request. I am the sketch producer of “The [...]

Mama Lisa's World News and Multimedia Features

A significant part of the Mama Lisa sites is a large collection of songs and nursery rhymes from around the world. We currently have about 750 songs from around 90 countries and cultures. When you consider how many languages there are in those cultures – that's a lot of information! In [...]

Greetings and Hand Gestures for the Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year is on January 29th, 2006. It's the Year of the Dog. The Chinese New Year is called Sun Lean in Cantonese. To wish each other a Happy New Year, the Chinese characters are -. The New Year's greeting in Cantonese is Kung Hey Fat Choy, which means Congratulations and Be [...]

Can Anyone Help with a Polish Song?

Sylvia emailed us asking for help with a Polish song her father and grandfather sang to her when she was young. Here's her email along with a recording of Sylvia singing the song: Recording of Song “Hi, I was wondering if you or anyone you know might be able to help me. My grandfather and [...]