Celebrating Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year recently occurred and we took time out on Friday to welcome the Year of the Dog. In celebration of this event, we had KungFu Academy perform their beautiful lion dance throughout our school building, visiting each classroom.
In preparation for this exciting event, we had red envelopes available for everyone, and we exchanged older $1 and $2 bills for new and crisp bills. The children could fill their envelope with a new bill and put it in the lion’s mouth when the performers came through their classroom.
It was an amazing event for both the children and staff.
Some Interesting Facts About Chinese New Year
- Chinese New Year represents the most important holiday for people in China. For many thousands of people, it is the only holiday throughout the year where they will have time off and travel back home to their families to celebrate the beginning of the New Year.
- Chinese New Year is determined by the Zodiac/Lunar calendar.
- Chinese New Year is celebrated for 7 to 10 days, and there are traditions followed for each day, with the first day of the New Year being celebrated at the husband’s family home.
- During the last week of the old year, families send their children to get haircuts, buy them new clothes and clean their homes to welcome the New Year with good fortune to come. Children are dressed in their newly bought clothes in celebration of the New Year.
- Red envelopes (laissee) are exchanged to wish our loved ones, friends, families, business partners, etc. good fortune for the New Year. It is important though that the money contained in the red envelopes is new and crisp to start the New Year well.
Images From the Event
