--Japanese New Year Song--

The Japanese celebrate New Year's Day on January 1 each year on the Gregorian Calendar. Before 1873, the date of the Japanese New Year (正月, shōgatsu?) was based on the Chinese lunar calendar, just as the contemporary Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese New Years are celebrated to this day. However, in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar, so the first day of January is the official New Year's Day in modern Japan. It is considered by most Japanese to be one of the most important annual festivals and has been celebrated for centuries with its own unique customs. Due to the importance of the holiday and the preparations required, the preceding days are quite busy, particularly New Year's Eve, known as Ōmisoka.
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_New_Year

--2011--

2011 (MMXI) is a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar and is the current year in Oceania, East Asia, Southeast Asia, India, and Eastern Russia, while 2010 is still ongoing in the rest of the world. It is the 2011th year of the Common Era/Anno Domini designation; the 11th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the second year of 2010s decade.

The United Nations has designated 2011 the International Year of Forests and International Year of Chemistry.

~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_in_film
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--往事只能回味 1970 (尤雅) Good Bye 2010--

--牌九--

牌九是古代中國傳統骨牌遊戲的一種，玩法是依據兩扇骨牌點數的不同組合，來比較大小，以決勝負。據說牌九始於宋代。舊時主要以牌九來賭博，因此中華人民共和國建立後政府將其取締。

牌九，即排出九的數目之意。牌九最大的對牌「至尊寶」，兩牌點數相加就是九點。近代有人將牌九這遊戲演化，以撲克牌來玩，玩法與骨牌牌九類似。

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~http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/牌九

--The Mafia Italian [Cosa Nostra & Camorra] --

The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid 19th century in Sicily. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct. Each group, known as a "family", "clan", or "cosca", claims sovereignty over a territory in which it operates its rackets – usually a town or village or a neighbourhood (borgata) of a larger city. Their primary activity is protection racketeering, but they are also involved in drug trafficking, loan sharking, and liquor and cigarette smuggling.
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Offshoots of the Mafia emerged in the United States, during the late 19th century, following waves of Italian emigration (see American Mafia) but also in Canada and Australia. The term "Mafia" is also employed to name Mafia-type organizations operating under a similar structure, whether Sicilian or not; such as the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta, the Stidda or the Sacra Corona Unita, as well as foreign organized crime groups.
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However, Giovanni Falcone, the Antimafia judge who was killed by the Mafia, objected to the inflation of the use of "Mafia" to organized crime in general: "While there was a time when people were reluctant to pronounce the word 'Mafia,' … nowadays people have gone so far in the opposite direction that it has become an overused term … I am no longer willing to accept the habit of speaking of the Mafia in descriptive and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to stack up phenomena that are indeed related to the field of organized crime but that have little or nothing in common with the Mafia."
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra

--Boxing Day 2010--

Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or 27 December, and is observed in Australia, Austria, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and in some Commonwealth nations that have a mainly Christian population. In South Africa, the public holiday 26 December is called Day of Goodwill, in Ireland St Stephen's Day or Lá an Dreoilín, and in continental European countries the "Second Christmas Day."

Though not an official holiday in the United States, some Americans use the term "Boxing Day," particularly those who live near the Canada – United States border. In Canada, Boxing Day is listed in the Canada Labour Code as an optional holiday. Only the province of Ontario has made it a statutory holiday where all workers receive time off with pay.

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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day

--Happy Xmas (War Is Over)--