For all you happy people out there, or for those who are looking for something to cheer them up, this blog’s perfect for you! The Happyblog is back in business, so if you have a fun, cheerful, or funny story or picture you want to share, send them to us and we’ll feature them right here! We’d love to hear anecdotes from you, so let us know about your tales! Who knows - your story might just be what one person needs to cheer up!

Keep smiling!

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! How’s your New Year celebration? Here in Sanriotown, we all celebrated the start of the Year of the Golden Ox with fun and laughter, wishing everyone in the world good health and good fortune throughout the year!

And because all of you are special to us, we’re giving you two treats today: we added new official screenshots of “The Adventures of Hello Kitty and Friends 3d Animation” in the download section and a new Valentines theme for the blogs for an additional customization option. Hope you all enjoy it!

By the way, since it’s the start of a new year, we’re looking for the first video to feature in our Director’s Club. Want to share your New Year memories in Sanriotown? Tell us how you celebrated your 2008 Chinese New Year through Dream Studio and be the first to tell the world through Director’s Club how wonderful your celebration was!

We’d also like to give you all a heads up to Sanriotown’s ongoing event, the “Sanriotown Yummies contest.” We’re still accepting entries and will still be up to February 17, 2009. So what are you waiting for? Show us your kittified food by blogging it and get a chance to win exclusive Sanrio kitchenware prizes!

Click here for more info on how to join the Sanriotown Yummies Contest.

That’s all for today’s entry. Have a wonderful year ahead!

Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is one of the most important and celebrated holidays in the Chinese Culture. This event is considered a long and major holiday in China and is also observed in most countries that have ethnic Chinese communities. But did you know how the Chinese New Year started?

Legend has it that a wild beast named Nien appears in a village every time New Year starts to attack villagers, pillage their goods and crops, and eat children. To counter the beast, the villagers used fireworks and loud noises; and so started the Chinese New Year celebration.

But of course, that is just a myth.

On a more historic note, the beginnings of the Chinese New Year is quite vague, since a lot of historians claim differently on the new year’s exact beginnings. Although, it is quite clear that when to start celebrating the Chinese New Year has changed throughout the time.

Traditionally, the celebration started during the 1st month in the Xia Dynasty, 11th month during the Zhou Dynasty, and 12th month during the Shang Dynasty. But when Qin Shi Huang became the First emperor of China, he changed the beginning of the year to the 10th month. Later on during the 104 BC, Han Dynasty’s Emperor Wu declared the beginning of the year to be month 1, and is still being followed as of today.

The 15-day celebration:

One thing that makes the Chinese New Year special is its 15 day celebration. Here’s a summary of what happens during those days:

First Day: Chinese, especially the Buddhists, believes that the first day of the New Year is the welcoming of the gods of heaven and earth. Abstaining from meat during this day is observed.

Second day: Married daughters usually visit their birth parents during this day. Chinese also pray to their ancestors and to their gods on this day.

Third and fourth day: Chinese usually don’t do much visiting during this day, because they believe it will only bring arguments and disagreements. Instead, these 2 days are for visiting dead relatives and friends on their graves.

Fifth day: This is the birth date of the god of wealth. To celebrate this, Taiwanese usually reopen their shops on this day.

Seventh day: this day is known as the common man’s day, where everyone gets a year older.

Ninth day: Taoists believe that this day is the birth date of the Jade Emperor of the heaven. The Hokkiens usually offer prayers and sugar cane to the Emperor on this day.

Fifteenth day: The end of the Chinese New Year. People usually walk the streets at night carrying lanterns. They also light candles outside of their homes to guide lost spirits back home.

Symbols:

The Chinese culture has a lot of symbols that usually represents good health, prosperity and fortune.

Red Envelopes – hong bao in Mandarin, ang pao in Hokkien, or lai shi in Cantonese, these red envelopes are given to Children and unmarried adults. Within it usually contains money, or chocolate money for children, symbolizing good fortune. The amount usually sums up to 8 or an amount with the number 8 because it sounds the same as “wealth” when pronounced in Chinese. The amount having the number 4 is usually discouraged in putting inside the red envelope as it is considered bad luck, having 4 as a homophone for “death.”

Red Clothing – The color red is believed to scare away bad spirits and bad luck, which is why this color is worn on New Years.

Flowers – Flower decorations at Chinese households also signify something:

a. Chrysanthemum - logetivity

b. Kumquat - prosperity

c. Narcissus - prosperity

d. Peach Blossom - luck

e. Sunflower - in wishing of a good year

Happy Chinese New Year to you all! We wish you good luck, fortune, health and prosperity in the Year of the Ox!

Chinese New Year (lunar new year) is just around the corner! The event will be held this coming Sunday, 25 January 2009, so we’ll be saying goodbye to the Rat and waving hello to the Ox!

What better way to celebrate this new year than by having videos featuring the sights, sounds, and wonder that the event brings? Send us your Dream Studio videos to show us how Chinese New Year is celebrated in your area and get the chance to have your creation featured on Director’s Club! The deadline is until 15 February, so start producing your video! Only 15 of the most creative videos will be chosen and featured starting tomorrow, January 23, so be creative and do your best!

Here’s a sample video for you to check out:

How to Join:
1. Create or upload a video with the theme “Chinese New Year” in mind.

2a. Add the phrase “Chinese New Year” enclosed in quotation marks in your tags; or
b. Send the link of your video to directors_club@hellokitty.com

3. Watch out for the updates in Director’s Club to see if your videos make the cut!

Hope you all have a prosperous year ahead of you!

Good news for the Hello Kitty Online players out there! HKO has recently gone through some enhancements to make playing the game even better for you! Want to find out what these upgrades are? Drop by the official HKO blog and read up on the latest Hello Kitty Online news!

Even if there are some who aren’t fans of video games, this game would be perfect for you Sanrio fans!

Play “Sanrio Bubbles”, the latest game on Sanriotown, and get the chance to save the adorable Sanrio characters from getting dunked in the sea! Rescue Hello Kitty, Badtz-Maru, My Melody and the other well-loved characters by firing bubbles to float them to safety. Aim the bubble cannon correctly and fire to save them from getting lost at sea.

You can play this and other fun games simply by logging into your Sanriotown account. Don’t have one yet? Click here to create your free account and enjoy this and many other fun activities here on Sanriotown!

The year 2008 has come and gone, and along with it, several of the events we’ve held for our beloved members. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the fun has to end there though! Go to Sanriotown’s main site and click one of the choices on the list to let us know which was your favorite Sanriotown happening last year!  Your replies will help us know what we can do to make things even better for everyone in the community.

If you want to tell us more about your choice, please don’t hesitate to leave a message in the forums, where you and other members can discuss about your favorite 2008 Sanriotown events.

Thanks everyone! Hope you all have a good 2008!

Hi everyone! As a last hurrah for the holiday season, we’ve created new blog themes just for you!

Two new layouts, featuring cheeky Minna No Tabo and his animal friends and Cinnamoroll’s friends the Cinnamoangels, have been added to the already-numerous adorable blog themes here on Sanriotown. Choose which one you want, and your cute blog is good to go!

If you don’t have a Sanriotown blog yet, don’t worry, it’s quite easy (and free!) to get one. All you have to do is register in Sanriotown.com to create your free account. Sign in, go to your blog, and you’re set!

Need a little push to make you join the “Sanrio Yummies” Contest? Consider this as your invitation!:D We’ve made a video featuring the yummy goodies made by the participants for the entries! You can check it out by clicking here and watch the video, if you can’t see it below. To see the submitted recipes, click here.

If you have skills in the kitchen (like the awesome people who have posted their entries so far), do send in your recipes with their corresponding kittified pictures to get a chance to win Sanrio goodies!

Not sure what the contest is about? No worries! Click here to find out what “Sanrio Yummies” is all about.

It’s the new year already! Say your farewell to 2008 and welcome 2009 . You can even use the Sanriotown e-cards to send your lovely greetings to your loved ones.

Happy new year!