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New Quizzes

GREETINGS FROM THE ORIENT!

Here in the Orient, we've just ushered in the new lunar new year. This festival not only marks the changing year, but the symbolic end of winter and the lengthening of the daylight hours which heralds the coming of spring.
At this time of the year, it is customary for Orientals to thoroughly clean and refurbish their houses, inside and out, to chase away any lingering ill fortune from the past year. So if you're bored during these last cold dark days of winter, perhaps you might consider doing the same.

LUNARFEST

We are most fortunate to have shanghaied a free lance reporter who was on the scene for our recent celebration of the new lunar year of the Ox. On the promise of an extraordinary sum of sestercii, should his report be of any use, said reporter has turned his tape recorder (can you believe anyone actually uses such a thing these days?) over to the ACTA staff. It's been tough transcribing his ramblings, he mumbles a lot, and he's apparently held up his mike to who knows who, but here's what we have been able to make of it.

Anonymous Reporter Here we are at the Orient's Lunar Fest which this year celebrates the Year of the Ox. It's early morning here in the Orient and it seems that our many of our revellers are starting their day in Rachana's Tea House. Everyone seems to be enjoying their teas, though there are many opinions on which tea is best.
Another Voice some people use it as an excuse to get away from me LOL You know who you are :P
Transcriber Oh dear, let's move on here. We probably don't want to know, do we.

Anonymous Reporter We're hoping to find out just what the Tibetan Year of the Ox horoscopes have foretold for those who were brave enough to look. There don't seem to be a lot of people around who were born in the year of the ox, but there are right many that are interpreting money on the way from their reading, or wishing they could. Here's what they have to say:
Other Voices I need to buy a money tree...Can I sue you in case I don't meet him?
Transcriber Meet who? Uh oh. The Orient doesn't need any lawsuits. Let's get back to that tape.

Anonymous Reporter Perhaps a better clue to what the coming year holds can be found by rolling the Shagai in Mongolia. Some folks had good luck, some, not so good. You there! What did the bones tell you?
Other Voices Boy I need a new job...Misfortune awaits me...Now there's a shock...I always said I had beginner's luck...I didn't even know I had any left...What is life without enjoying a little gossip with friends?...They better not or I'll go all troll on them!...crap, maybe that's a sign I need to go back to Germania
Transcriber Go troll? Is that lucky or unlucky? Do trolls gossip I wonder? Let's move on.

I'm here at the exit of the room where the festival goers have come to discover their Inner Ox. From what I've heard, there are a lot of earth and fire oxen, but surprisingly few representatives of the other elements. Hey you there! What sort of ox did you turn out to be?
Transcriber Here there seem to be several people all talking at once into the mike.
Other Voices Not sure red and orange go with green and blue and the odd shade of purple at my home...I take the bull by the horns...wanders off to talk to a tree
Transcriber I'm sure this would have made a lot more sense had he interviewed people one at a time. I would have thought he'd got that straight by now.

Anonymous Reporter What have we here? People telling stories? I love stories! Let's listen.
Transcriber Well didn't we get lucky. He didn't try to record the tales over top of one another.

Anonymous Reporter A festival in the Orient is always a great time to pick up some Souvenirs, and this year's selection is quite grand! But after all this walking and talking to people, I need a drink, and something to eat. Where better to find sustenance than at the famous Kublai Khantina? They even have a new menu of Lucky Lunar New Year Food. I had one of each. Never hurts to cover all the bases. There were an awful lot of people in there drinking the koumiss, and the house Samurai Sunset. Bunch of drunks, the lot of them. But Dair Khan was sober enough to win a meal on the house by identifying Kenji's mystery dish of Moon Cakes.
Transcriber What does he mean "bunch of drunks"? I suppose he didn't have anything but water? I do hope he boiled it first. Or maybe not. We've only signed the contract. He hasn't actually been paid yet.

Here the tape broke, so we'll never know what else our reporter saw. It's probably just as well. But there you have it folks. Another Lunar New Year greeted in style in the Orient. For those of you who may have missed our celebration, it's still not too late to welcome in 2009: The Year of the Ox.

Love in the Orient

Remember the words of the old song? "Love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage..." Well maybe not, depending on the state of your marriage, but in honor of the season of love, have a go at our Oriental Marriage Customs Quiz.

The Orient Family Names Project

We've been slowly adding information about our Oriental family names, but there are still a lot to do and we're hoping for your help. Take a look at the list of surnames in the Orient Names Project thread and adopt your favorite today!

We're also hoping for your help in creating family plaques for each of our Oriental families. You can see a list of those we have and those we still need in the Orient Family Plaques thread.

Orient Site Map

Have you ever forgotten where you saw that interesting group or hood home in the Orient? Help is at hand! Aria Murasaka has created a wonderful Oriental site map to help us navigate our complicated world. Take some time to explore this most useful resource. You'll wonder how we ever did without it!

Archaeology News