‘Gong Hey Fat Choy’ to all of our Chinese friends and family !

Today,  the boys and girls in Primary 1 learnt all about the Chinese New Year. Why ? Well, today is the Chinese New Year.

What did we learn ?

We found out that the Chinese New Year is a very special time but it wasn’t always like that.We learnt about the legend of the Chinese New Year.  We learnt that long ago a monster called Nian appeared in a village in China and scared all of the villagers. A wise old man came up with a plan to scare away the monster.  He said that the villagers should wear clothes with red, gold and orange.  He also said that the monster was scared of loud noises and fire, so the villagers banged their drums loudly and lit fire crackers.  When the villagers did this, the monster ran away.

Chinese New Year is a time when families get together to celebrate. In the days coming up to New Year every family buys presents, decorations, food, new clothes and people have their hair cut. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom. The aim is to sweep out any bad luck from the old year and clear the way for good luck. However, it is bad luck to clean on New Years Day itself.

Families put lights up outside their homes, rather like Christmas lights. Doors and windows are often newly painted in red. On New Years Eve both narrow strips of red paper, called Chunlian or Spring Couplets, and bunches of firecracker decorations are hung on doors to bring good luck.

Chinese New Year celebrations last for 15 days.  In the first three days of Chinese New Year celebrations, people living outside cities can light firecrackers which are similar to rows of fireworks, but which make a series of loud bangs. The idea is that the bangs scare away bad luck. People hang bunches of decorative firecrackers both inside and outside their homes for the same reason.

The colour red is used to decorate for two reasons. The first is because red is a lucky colour and the second because it is supposed to frighten off the monster Nian who is thought to come on New Years Eve. Families also decorate their homes with lanterns and put stickers on things in their homes.

We had lots of fun in the afternoon to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

What did we do ?

We learnt how to count to 10 in Chinese.

We made a part of a dragon.  (Once these are dry we will join them together to make a huge dragon).

We tasted lots of Chinese foods and drinks including : Sweet and sour vegetable wantons, prawn crackers, spring rolls, tangerines and lychee juice.

We made Chinese lanterns.

We looked at Chinese images and coloured them in.

We looked at Chinese numbers and copied these.

It was a fantastic afternoon, full of super learning and fun.  Well done everyone !