Chinese New Year The Spring Festival

The Spring Festival Chinese New Year is often called the Spring Festival Why? Because Chinese New Year takes place on the first day of Spring according to the Lunar Calendar.

The Lunar Calendar The Lunar Calendar is based upon the appearance of the moon in our nightly skies. Chinese New Year is determined by the Lunar Calendar. Chinese New Year day takes place when the first ‘new moon’ appears after the winter solstice. Chinese New Year is the second New moon after the winter solstice. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. This means that Chinese New Year will take place on February 10th this year.

The Chinese Zodiac In the Chinese Lunar Calendar, each year is named for an animal. Every 12 years the cycle begins again. Beginning with the rat, the wheel reads counter- clockwise. If you are born in that year, you will have some of that animal’s traits

Year of the Horse This year is the Year of the Horse. Personality: energetic, active, cunning and has positive outlook on life. Lucky Colors: green, red, Purple. Lucky Numbers: 3, 4, 9.

Did You Know That . . . Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days? Each of these 15 days has special meaning and each day involves unique traditions We will focus on three parts of this celebration . . .

New Year’s Eve and all the preparations that lead to it New Year’s Day The last day of the celebrations: The Lantern Festival

Preparing for New Year’s Celebrations

Preparing for New Year’s Day The principal themes in preparing for New Year’s day are new beginnings and prosperity for the new year.

In the days leading to Chinese New Year people might: clean their houses buy new clothes decorate with flowers get hair cuts

They might express their wishes for prosperity and good luck by providing guests with candies and decorating the house with red couplets.

Red Couplets 'Red Couplets’ are Chinese good luck sayings written on red paper. Some New Year couplets are intended to be pasted or pinned in special places such as the kitchen or doors, while some can be placed anywhere.

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve New Year’s Eve is a time for families to gather together for elaborate dinners and fun Family members who live elsewhere will make special efforts to attend these dinners

New Year’s Eve In fact, more people travel to be with their families for Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner than for almost any other holiday in the world. More than 2 billion trips will be made by people during the 15 day celebration!

At the stroke of midnight, all doors and windows have to be open to welcome in the new year.

Fire Crackers Firecrackers are set off to send out the old year and welcome in the new year.

New Year’s Day

New Year’s Day Traditions New Year’s Day is full of traditions that allow families and friends to come together and have fun. Many of these traditions have special meanings and unique histories.

Some of the most common Chinese New Year traditions stem from an ancient legend . . .

The Legend of Nian Legend says that long ago there was a very strong and ugly monster named Nian. Nian lived in the mountains. On the first and fifteenth day of every month he would come down from the mountains and attack the people of the village. A wise man came to help the villagers.

He suggested that they plan ahead and be thoughtful He suggested that they plan ahead and be thoughtful. The villagers agreed. The next time Nian came, he was surprised and scared. The villagers made loud noises by beating on gongs and drums, set off firecrackers and displayed red objects. Some villagers dressed up like lions. These were all the things that Nian hated most, and he quickly retreated.

These practices for keeping Nian away have influenced Chinese New Year traditions. Many people will celebrate the New Year by: hanging red objects in their windows and doors beating drums and gongs lighting firecrackers and by attending ceremonial Lion Dances

The Lion Dance The Lion Dance involves one or two martial arts practitioners who climb under a Lion costume and perform a difficult and intricate series of movements

The Lion Dance is hard work! Dancers have to work closely as a team. They have to pay close attention to each other so that they can coordinate their movements. When successful, the Lion starts to look as though it has it’s own personality.

The head of the Lion often weighs up to 18 kg or 40 lbs That’s as heavy as 4 jugs of milk . . . or, one big pumpkin!

No wonder this Lion Dancer is taking a rest. That’s a heavy costume!

Here is a short video of two people performing a Lion Dance. These dancers are professionals performing outside of a large shopping centre in Singapore. This performance took place just a few days ago. You will also see and hear a number of people playing loud instruments

See presenter comments below to access this video file. This clip is located via a ‘link’ on the previous page. If youtube is not loading quickly enough, the file has been downloaded and is available on FirstClass. All Staff>programs>special programs>CDSS>Multicultural Workers>Chinese New Year Alternatively, just search for a “Lion Dance” clip from YouTube. See presenter comments below to access this video file.

Other important Chinese New Year Day traditions include…

Lucky red envelopes During Chinese New Year celebrations, older relatives give children in the family a red envelope with money inside. Receiving presents is nice. Giving presents is even nicer. So…this tradition of giving envelopes is thought to bring GOOD LUCK for everyone involved!

Lucky Food There are many foods that symbolize good fortune during Chinese New Year. For example . . . During the two-week Chinese New Year celebrations people present oranges to their friends and relatives to express their respects and good wishes for the coming year. In Chinese, the word "orange" sounds like "Ji", which means "good luck".

Dragon Dance The dragon dance symbolizes the bringing of good luck and prosperity in the new year for everyone.

Performing a dragon dance can be a real challenge.

Each Dragon costume is usually held up by 9 people or more.

Also, the Dragon costume itself is very long Also, the Dragon costume itself is very long. Although the recommended size of a Dragon costume is 112 feet, the costume usually ranges between 80 and 250 feet. That means the Dragon costume could be as long as one school gymnasium or three!

Here is an online clip showing a Dragon Dance at a recent Chinese New Year festival. See if you can count how many people are under the Dragon’s costume

If the previous clip did not work, see presenter notes for this clip. This clip has been downloaded and is available on First Class: all staff>programs>special programs>cdss>multicultural workers. Alternatively, it may be faster to simply search youtube for a DragonDance clip. If the previous clip did not work, see presenter notes for this clip.

It’s time to talk about the very last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations . . .

The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival On the 15th day of Chinese New Year, people gather to celebrate The Lantern Festival Why is it called the Lantern Festival? It is a festival because it involves large numbers of people gathering together to enjoy good food and time with family and friends. It is called the ‘Lantern Festival’ because this gathering always involves large displays of paper lanterns. Here are some pictures from recent Lantern Festivals During the Lantern Festival, children might go out at night carrying bright lanterns.

Lantern Festival

This year’s parade will be held on Sunday, February 17, 2013 These are just a few of the ways in which Chinese New Year is celebrated around the world. Because it involves over a billion people, Chinese New Year celebrations can look different in different places. You can find more information about Chinese New Year in our school library. Vancouver’s Chinatown hosts a Chinese New Year festival that is attended by thousands of people. This year’s parade will be held on Sunday, February 17, 2013 You should try to go!

We hope that you enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year!