Chinese New Year China’s most popular traditional holiday, Chinese New Year (CNY) is a time for feasting, family reunions, fun and celebration! Every year, Asians throughout the world spend weeks preparing for the 15-day celebration, officially called the Spring Festival. In 2010, Chinese New Year falls on Sunday, February 14th. It is lunar year 4708, the year of Tiger according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
Last year, the CNY begins on Monday January 26 in 2009. It is the Year of Ox, year 4707 on the Chinese calendar.
Here are some of the ways you can celebrate CNY:
1. Clean House - Before the New Year arrives, the Chinese consider it very important to give the house a thorough cleaning, sweeping away any bad luck that may have accumulated over the past year.
2. Decorate! - Doors and window panes are also often painted red, considered to be a lucky color. In addition, people like to hang paper-cuts and Chinese Calligraphy on doors and windows. Paper cutting is an ancient Chinese art form.
3. Ware brand new clothes – it will bring you a better New Year and prospect.
4. Don't clean for the first few days of the New Year - if you do any sweeping during this time, you may risk sweeping away your good luck.
5. Offer a Sacrifice to the Kitchen God - Many families have a poster or statue of the Kitchen God in their kitchen. The custom is to offer a ceremonial sacrifice to the Kitchen God, to make sure that he gives a good report on the family's behavior when he returns to heaven. Rice sticky cake (Nian Gao) is popular, or children may rub honey on him.
6. An important tradition on New Year's Eve is for families to gather together and spend the evening preparing Chinese dumplings (Jiaozi – wheat flour or Yuanzi – rice flour). According to Chinese culture, it is common to hide a coin in one of the dumplings. Whoever gets the dumpling with the coin will supposedly have good luck in the coming year.
7. Give out money packets - On New Years day, children receive the “Spring Festival Money Gift (or yashuiqian), a red packet decorated with gold symbols and filled with "lucky money".
8. Like Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US, Chinese serve festive foods throughout the CNY season. Certain foods are served because they symbolize abundance and good fortune. Besides preparing special dishes, tangerines and oranges are often passed out to children and guests, as they symbolize wealth and good luck.
我其实很感谢这个台湾妈妈，也很佩服她这样宣传中国文化。今年，悠悠妈妈爸爸也准备去悠悠班上做一个类似的活动。已经和老师联系好了。具体的活动，我也大概想了一下， Here are some of my thoughts about what I will do on that day.
1. come and put some Chinese decorations and show those decorations with the kids. about 5 minutes 2. Read a story about Chinese New Year and tell the kids some Chinese tradition. Ask and answer the questions. about 10-20 minutes (need Michael or Andy or you to help me to call the kids' name. :-) 3. Tell the kids something (national flag, Chinese money etc) about China. (Need world map or global) ~ 5 minutes 4. Give the kid the card with the kids' Chinese Name. (Need the kids' name first to prepare). I will write them on site if possible to use Chinese calligraphy brush. ~ 10minutes 5. Enjoy Chinese dumplings using chopsticks. ( fillings are chicken. need to ask the kids' parent first to get permission if their kids are allowed to try dumpling or not). Or some chopstick game (using chopsticks to get something). 6.Let each kids do dragon dancing. (the kids will love it. I will borrow a paper-dragon from my friend. 3 kids can do it together.) ~10minutes (we can take some pictures for the kids).
小朋友分成3排，席地而坐。爸爸妈妈做在前面的小板凳上。小朋友看着爸爸妈妈带来的一个大箱子，都很激动。爸爸妈妈一会从里面拿出一个小狮子，一会拿出一个小灯笼。然后，妈妈就给小朋友做了个小小演讲。爸爸就在旁边展示类似的东西。妈妈做了6张图片介绍。1.do you know what's the most popular holiday in china? it is very similar as Christmas here. Yes, it is Chinese New year. Every year, Asians throughout the world spend 15 days to celebrate Chinese new Year, offically, we also call it spring festival. Chinese new year is the time for fun, family reunion, celebration and food-feast.. 2.so, when is the CNY. CNY is the 1st day of the 1st month according to chinese lunar calendar. this year, CNY falls on Sunday, Feb. 14th. and it is the year of tiger. A long time ago, ancient chinese named each year with an animal. If you were born in 2003, you are a sheep as UU. If you were born in 2004, you are monkey. 3. there are a lot of triditions associated with CNY. Here are some of ways we celebrate CNY. Decorate..
