【明報專訊】Happy Chinese New Year! There are many people in different places that do not celebrate the New Year on 1 January.

◆Jan - Feb

Korean New Year

Korea has a lunar calendar that is similar to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The Koreans eat tteokguk - sliced rice cake soup - on New Year's Day and perform a ritual bow to their parents to thank them for their care and love over the past year. (photo.2)

◆April

Thai New Year

The Thais celebrate Songkran in mid-April every year as their new year's celebration. The name "Songkran" comes from a Hindu festival that marks the arrival of Spring. The Water Festival, in which people splash water on each other, has become a famous Songkran celebration and is popular among tourists.

◆Sep - Oct

Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah)

The Hebrew Calendar is one of the world's oldest calendars. The Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah in around September to October. It is in the seventh month of the Jewish Calendar. The Jews will sound the shofar(羊角號), a trumpet made of ram's horn, to mark the beginning of the year.

■English highway﹕Ordinal numbers

When we express a number that shows the position of something in a list of things, we need to use "the" before the ordinal number.

e.g. This is the third orange I am eating today.

e.g. March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar.

■Glossary

ritual (adj) 儀式的

arrival (n) 來臨

splash (v) 潑

sound (v) 吹響

[Smarties' Power English 第239期]