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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Muvee Day

CSS UCSI University cordially welcomes you to our exciting, action packed activity:-
JOIN US as we watch a Fun, Thrilling and Exciting Movie--- 
FIREPROOF!!!!!
Guaranteed to be inspired. You cannot afford to miss it!!

Date: 1st of March, 2010 @ Monday
Time: 4.30pm
Venue: C417, UCSI University South Wing
See You there!!!! :)


Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

VALENTINE'S DAY HISTORY

There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine's Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine". Other aspects of the story say that Saint Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine.
Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.
In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialised. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as valentines are sent out with sentimental verses and children exchange valentine cards at school.

THE HISTORY OF SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY

Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.
The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.
Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.
The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.

ST. VALENTINE'S STORY

Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn't like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn't the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.
Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!
Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.
One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.
I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.
One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine."
I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can't be beaten!

VALENTINE TRADITIONS

Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing from home to home. One verse they sang was:
Good morning to you, valentine;
Curl your locks as I do mine ---
Two before and three behind.
Good morning to you, valentine.
In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.
Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.
A love seat is a wide chair. It was first made to seat one woman and her wide dress. Later, the love seat or courting seat had two sections, often in an S-shape. In this way, a couple could sit together -- but not too closely!
Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.
Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of children you will have.
If you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

CSS AGM 2010

Hey guys!! Sorry for the late post up on the latest news! The topic of the week is CSS AGM 2010... Yup, it's here again! The AGM went well but only a few turn ups... The good news is, there are new faces in the BOARD! Here is the list of names for the new committee members...

President: Olwande, Joy Akinyi
Vice President: Gunasekera, Keshia Anne 
Secretary: Vincent Paul Jordan Roderiquez
Treasurer: Ihewuokwu Mary
Events Coordinator: Osere, Chukwulanim Patrick
Publicity Director: Kimberly ak. Jane
Music Director: Dan, Clare Freda
Webmaster: Fabian Subash

Self Discovery Camp

The second day of Self Discovery Camp was special and FUN After we attended the Sunday Mass, Fr. Joseph Heng told us that we would have a tour around Johor. At first, all of us thought that we would only go to various churches in Johor so we were just excited to see different churches. However, it was not only churches we went, we were really travelling around Johor. 

a)      a) Church of Immaculate Conception
It is an old church. There was still a mass going on when we arrived so we just walked in quietly. After that, Fr. Paul Wong who is the parish priest of CIC introduced us to all the parishioners and a welcome song was sung by the choir and parishioners to us. That song was very nice and we felt like being home.



Bells in the bell tower. There are 5 bells in total with different sizes. Different ceremony will have different ways of ringing the bell. on't look down on the job of ringing bells as the bells are hard to ring because they are heavy. "Dang"...time to go back to God.



I think majority of us entered the bell tower for the first time.

b) Ancient temple
Mr. James, our temporary tour guide brought us to this one of the oldest temple in Johor. This temple is very famous and it marked the footprint the Chinese ancestors who travelled far from the China to Malaya. As all of us are Chinese speaking, he told us the importance of knowing our root and appreciate what our ancestors have done to the next generations.

Posting after visiting
a)     c)  Malay Cemetery
Huh? It was quite odd for a travel trip to have a tour in cemetery, especially not catholic cemetery. Mr. James explained that we could see many things from a life of a human, from birth till death. Everything is planned. For today, we will see the life backward, starting from death. The cemetery is well organized with all the graves facing to the same direction, Kiblat. 

Mr.James was explaining to us.

a)     d)  Masjid Abu Bakar
It is a beautiful and large mosque. There were people praying when we reached there too. Although we were not understand what he was praying, we felt that God (Allah) is great Mr. James said that the mutual understanding between religion is very important especially in this multiracial and religion country and we must respect each other. Sometimes, there are values in other religion that we could learn as well.

Group photo

a)      e) Jalan Kolam Air
After a half day of visiting, we were so tired and HUNGRY Mr. James brought us to the famous Laksa in Johor. As we were very hungry, everything put in our mouth was just like the food from heaven. The cold ‘cincao’ refreshed us under this hot day.


The shop

Wow...laksa...

Nice otak!!

a)    f)   Nusajaya’s Puteri Harbour City
It is a bulding and harbor build under Iskandar project, which uses an area of land of 4 times of Singapore. It is planned to attract more overseas developers to our country. The buildings around are very luxurious with their design and size. As this project is still developing, we were not managed to see all the things planned. 

Everyone is happy!!

a)     g) Ledang Heights
A small office with show houses around. A lady who is Mr. James’ friend explained to us about Iskandar project in more detail. This will help to enhance our knowledge of the development of our country.

The Iskandar project

a)     h) Cathedral of Sacred Heart
Fr. Joseph Heng taught us the reason of why the church is called cathedral. It was from the latin word, kathera which means the seat of bishop. This seat reminds the power hold by bishop but also the heavy responsibility that he has to bear. 

In a small room before entering the church...Briefing after a short prayer.

Satisfying with our journey...

i)Majodi Centre
Finally , we went back to our base camp. This was a tired day yet contented. We have a short pray when we reached for our safe journey. Thank God.



At night, we had a short sharing. Although this was just our second day, we already have a lots to share. Everyone sees God in different perspectives and through today's journey, we experienced God.