Chinese New Year is popularly known as the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival. It is believed to bring prosperity and hope not only in China but also to Chinese communities around the world. This festival follows the lunisolar calendar.
Asia
I managed to escape the clutches of forced marriage and vowed to embolden a campaign against the practice in my village and nearby areas. My work became well known and in 2019, I won the Changemaker Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a youth activist.
One day in the city, I came upon a tour guide. The courage to approach him escaped me. Men do not like that anyway. Instead, I observed him from a distance. He stood in the middle of a group of people telling stories. His eyes filled with passion. Everyone around him listened intently, and he appeared to love his job. The idea of being a tour guide thrilled me.
As they began to hit us, they almost broke my nose. The next day, bruises covered my body on all sides and my eye turned black. Knowledgeable in first aid and CPR, we just wanted to help.
I hid in the trenches, sometimes for hours. When the full moon lit up the sky, the British Army launched nightly attacks. I came to dread the full moon, which brought the sound of the danger siren bellowing.
News reports from around the world began to reveal a disturbing trend last year in Qatar - the host country for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In the last 10 years, since the announcement of the World Cup in Qatar, at least 6,500 migrant workers died there.
I will never forget the sight of the dead bodies coming into the hospital, one after another. On the day of my engagement, instead of celebrating, we picked up eight bodies. My house sits silently. No longer do you hear the joyful voices of children.
In West Bengal, human-elephant conflict worsens each year as Asiatic elephants from the Dalma forest roam freely. With the onset of winter, the elephants destroy paddy fields, agricultural produce, and the mud huts of the local villagers.
In minutes, the room filled to capacity and people streamed out the door. We decided to go out. I took my keyboard and a ritual began, which would prove to be a key experience for Argentinians throughout the 2022 World Cup tournament.
On the eve of the match between France and Australia, I felt very anxious. Sleep alluded me, knowing this would be a defining moment in my career, played out on a global stage. I also felt scared knowing I broke the glass ceiling as Africa’s first female World Cup referee.
The Festival of Lights boasts a 360 degree design perfect for social media posts and vertical Tik Tok videos, which people capitalize on. Family and friends come to watch and post their experiences on social media.
Giant, larger-than-life puppets with paper mâché heads tower above the crowds. They symbolize the corrupt hacienda owners who lived in Angono during the Spanish rule.
For seven hours, my newborn body lay in the ground. When my aunt dug out the grave in the middle of the night, she found me breathing... I cannot say how many awards I have won. Even Queen Elizabeth honored me with a gold medal in 1985... but my most important achievement is that no more girls are being killed in the Sapera community of Rajasthan.
I soon saw police and security personnel pulling the bodies of the driver and conductor from the mangled front end of the bus using gas cutters. While I did not sustain critical injuries, I could not handle the deafening sound of the crash and the cries of the passengers. Casting my eyes on the horrible sight, I believed everything was ending right there in front of me.
The key to opening some of life’s most difficult doors can come in the form of a beautiful handwriting style. In the age of supercomputers and smartphones, this critical skill has dwindled. When I step in front of an audience for a public talk or deliver a workshop to students at an architectural school, people become eager to take up the use of fountain pens.
I grabbed the tiger’s cotton-like, soft skin as I breathed in the smell of the beast. My companions fled to the other boat, still shouting at the top of their lungs. As I tried to knock the tiger out of the boat, it sank its teeth into my skull.
I don’t understand most things when I swim, I just know I need to be ahead of the other swimmers. Understanding when to be happy or what the prize is eludes me. I only know my parents seem happy when I succeed.
When I arrive in the morning, I take the sacred footprint and mount it on a marble pedestal with the same fervor for religion as my predecessors. I light incense, sprinkle rose water, and rub perfume on the tablet, before performing the traditional Dua-e-Fathia prayer. Then I open the doors of the mosque for visitors.
Ashok, 34, began working as a ragpicker young and resides not too far away. A shack made of bamboo sticks and tin sheets, with the kitchen on the front porch, makes up his home. He lives with his wife and five children.
My discovery confirms the Himalayas did not evolve to their current location; they emerged from the Tethys Ocean. These palms lived close to the shore when they became fossilized 20 million years ago. Their preserved lengths suggest a warm, humid atmosphere with dense forest vegetation, unlike today, where no vegetation exists at those high altitudes.
The municipality of Obando in the province of Bulacan sits at the shoreline of Manila Bay, if there was a shoreline left. The community of fisherman there always enjoyed life around the bay, protected by water dikes; but now the flood gates at the dikes can no longer hold back the sea water.
For three weeks, I remained in solitary confinement in Rawalpindi Jail. Sitting alone, I had no idea what happened to my wife, whom the Pakistani military detained shortly after my arrest. I still shudder at the incident, which took place 50 years ago.
The festival ran from October 1-5, 2022, with events organized by individuals and communities. Puja, which dates back centuries, is still performed at the homes of zamindars or landlords. The deities celebrated remain encrusted in gold, silver, and diamond jewelry.
An NGO that worked for water conservation pursued me after my release from jail. They came and spoke to me about ensuring water availability for farming on my land. They made me talk to people who built structures to tackle water shortage. This opened my eyes to new possibilities.Â
