Chinese 🇨🇳 New Year 🐉 of a 🐓 Rooster - How we celebrate
01/28/2017
Happy🎊 Lunar New Year of a Rooster! Rooster 🐓 is smart, independent and full of energy! Wishing everyone fortune and good luck!
Every 12 years (i.e. 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, and 2029) there is a Rooster year, beginning at Chinese New Year. In Chinese astrology, each zodiac year is not just associated with an animal sign, but also one of five elements: Gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire, or Earth.
Both the zodiac sign and the element shape the astrology of the year, and the year 2017 is a Fire Rooster year. Fire rooster is trustworthy, with a strong sense of timekeeping and responsibility at work. (Element-sign combinations recur every 60 years.)
Have you heard of a "red pocket"? During the Chinese New Year celebration, children receive a "red pocket" filled with money: the more family and friends they visit, the more "red pockets" they collect.
Dragon is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, traditionally symbolizing potent and auspicious powers, particularly the control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it. The myth is that there was a very scary monster - a dragon, who petrified Chinese people. So, during the Chinese New Year celebration, people use different devices to scare away that monster dragon - the louder the noise, the more chances of scaring it away! (Similar to Halloween in Western Hemisphere).
So, today, to commemorate the Chinese 🇨🇳 New Year, children are making a 🐉 dragon paper-craft. The craft can be enjoyed by a three year old (Adrian) to seven years old (Julia) and up (even I made one.) You would glue two strips of paper as if you were to make a 90 degree angle. "Red" color in Chinese culture represents good luck, and "gold" represents fortune. So, we are using those two traditional colors. Once the ends are glues (or taped), the child would fold over, and fold over ... You can make the dragon as long as you want. Traditionally, though, the dragon should be long enough so that a person holding the popsicles, which are glued to the ends, can dance with it.
Chinese New Year is celebrated in many Asian countries, including South Korea. So, children decided to wear Hanbok (traditional Korean dress), which my Mom got for them, to celebrate the occasion and get into the spirit.
HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!
Read here about a Chinese New Year Celebration at a Montessori School.
To conclude the 🎊 celebration, children decided to have a Tea Party (read a post here).
This picture my Mom took of the actual Chinese New Year Festival.
Read here about our China 🇨🇳 Box - Montessori Cultural & Science Lesson on Continent Boxes.
How do you celebrate Chinese 🐉 New Year?