Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

The primary classroom learned about Chinese New Year during a visit from a classroom parent. At a special morning circle we heard a Chinese New Year story about Nian the New Year Monster and a story about the Chinese Zodiac.

Nian comes out of hiding from the mountains in the Spring. The villagers realized that the ferocious Nian was afraid of three things: the color red, fire, and noise.  The villagers came together and agreed that when it was time for Nian's annual visit towards the end of winter they would start a fire in front of every door, hang a board painted red in front of every house, and make noise. So one night when they spotted Nian coming down the mountain they started the fires, hung red boards, and stayed up all night long making noises. The monster came down and heard the noise, saw the red on the doors, and the fire and retreated to the mountain. The next morning everyone had a big celebration and the tradition passed down generation to generation in the custom of guonian. To celebrate Chinese New Year people hang red papers in windows with wishes for the new year written on them, they light lanterns, and set off fireworks.

Another story that was told to the children was about the Chinese Zodiac. This year is the year of the snake. The story goes that all of the animals of the universe were invited to a banquet, but only twelve came. It was decided that each of these animals would be given a year on the lunar cycle. Children born in that year would acquire the personality traits of the animal assigned to that year. In order to decide their order in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, the animals held a race across a river. The first one to cross the river would be granted the first year, the second to come in would be the second animal in the cycle, and so on. The Ox was in the lead. Then when he was almost to the other side, clever Rat jumped on the Ox's back. At the last second before reaching shore, the Rat jumped on land, winning the race! The Ox came in second, the Tiger third, and so on. The happy-go-lucky Pig took his time and came in last.

After the story the children cut out a snake from red paper and each child cut out his/her own animal sign from red paper.

We enjoyed dumplings with soy sauce for snack.