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Show TtiE Chinese New Y'eak commenced commen-ced on Wednesday, and wherever the "celestials" congregate in small or great numbers, they celebrate the commencement com-mencement of the year by a festival or carnival of several days' duration. A semi-religious custom requires that on new year's day, every "celestial" must pay all that he owes; a very commendable commend-able custom, and one which, despite the authority of Geo. Francis Train to the contrary, we opine is oftencr broken brok-en than honored. From this day dates the birth of all Chinese, they not reckoning reck-oning months and days in their birth registers. The devout among them spend a part of the day beginning the year in visiting the temples, and soliciting, solic-iting, by invocation and incense and by burning tapers, the favor of the gods. They also visit and feast each other, and from this custom probably comes our custom of making new year's calls. Another respect in which the American Ameri-can mode of celebrating this festival accords with, and is probably derived trom, that of the Chinese, is giving vent to their joy by exploding gunpowder. gun-powder. Your adult Chinese of both sescs are as supremely happy in the noise made by a fusilade of fire-crackers, as any troop of representative young Americans. The Chinese, too, wisn each other a happy new year in minature cups of arrack, a fashion j which comes to Americans naturally, , sanctified by no precedent, and followed follow-ed at, the dictate of appetite, only in this country the liquor is changed. The "celestials" in this city make a noise and feast in celebration of the season, according to their numbers and the status of the laundry business. Here they have no temples, but yesterday yes-terday morning we saw a number of them, in one of their laundries, engaged engag-ed in a religions ceremony, which reminded re-minded us of an Indian medicine man exorcising evil spirits. We don't know the length of time the festivities and ceremonies continue, but we are inclined in-clined to think (hat the concluding signal is the exploding of the last bunch of fire crackers to hi had for love or money. |