Chinese New Year
The colourful and
exciting celebrations for the Chinese New Year last for several days and
end with the 2000-year-old lantern (Yuanxiao) festival. It is just like
Christmas in the West, but it is not a religious holiday.
The
legend behind the festival
The Chinese New Year is celebrated as a spring festival in commemoration
of the legend of Nia. Nia was supposed to be a huge wild animal which
terrified towns and villages on winter evenings when it came looking for
food. The people were frightened as they could think of no way of scaring
the monster away. Then one day, someone hung a red cloth in a tall tree
too dry. Nia, seeing the ominous red cloth looming against the sky, ran
away in fear of its life. Everyone was so glad that they had found a means
of keeping the monster away that they hung red cloth on the front door
of each house. And since then Nia has never returned.
The celebrations
The period begins
with a symbolic spring-clean, debts are paid and preparations made for
a frsh start to the New Year. Houses are decorated with lanterns and red
paper strips with New Year poems are hung from the doors.
On their New Year's Eve, families gather together for a large 'unity dinner'
which consists of more than ten dishes! New Year's greeting are painted
on red paper and displayed on doors, cards are exchanged and there are
big firework displays.
On the morning of New Year's Day, everyone gets up early, and the children
find small red envelopes containing sweets or money under their pillows.
Everyone greets eachother saying 'Kung Hoy Fat Choy' (Happy New Year).
During the Lantern Festival, everywhere is decorated with a variety of different sixed lanterns and there is music and dancing in the streets. One special feature is the dragon dance, where a huge dragon head and body, supported by a team of dancers weaves its way around the streets collecting money from houses on its route.
Activities
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Ask the class to research the fable of how the Chinese years got their names. They can then make masks depicting the 12 animals and re-enact the fable in mime or dance using a series of narrators to retell the story. |
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The children can decorate classrooms and other areas around the school with red and gold banners, lanterns and fans. |
This information comes from Active Assemblies by Ian Addis.