Chinese New Year

How did Chinese New Year begin?

Chinese New Year is a celebration that started a long time ago in China. For each Chinese New Year there’s a zodiac animal and if you’re born in the year of that animal you’re said to most likely have

In ancient China it is said that there was a Monster who would visit the ancient Chinese every first moon of the year, when he came he would terrorise the people. The Monster’s name was Nian. One day a wise old man told the people about Nian’s weaknesses. They were the color red , loud noises and fire. The next time that Nian came the people were ready, dressed in red with flaming torches in their hands and loud beats exploding from their drums they scared Nian away.  Ever since then Chinese (and many other people today) celebrate the Monster’s disappearance.

For Chinese New Year they would introduce traditional Foods to celebrate with. Shrimp, Noodles and Egg rolls. There are more traditional foods and decorations too. For decorations people mainly use red items (Sometimes gold color too). People also hand out envelopes with money in them to children and unmarried adults, the envelopes are called Hong Bao. They’re given for good luck and prosperity. Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days and on the last few, people release paper lanterns. Kung Hei Fat Choi is a way of saying ‘happy new year’ or another cheery greeting in Chinese.

One day the Jade Emperor called for a race of animals to decide which twelve would be in the Chinese zodiac, which meant that if they accomplished getting into the top twelve there would be a “year” of their animal. The Rat came first and was quickly followed by an Ox , a Tiger , a Rabbit , a Dragon , a Snake , a Horse , a Goat , a Monkey , a Rooster, a Dog and a Pig.

Each Chinese New Year is a celebration of an animal that competed in the zodiac race and came within the top twelve. For 2018 the zodiac animal is the Dog. Each person to be born on the year of the dog is supposed to be loyal and responsible. Kung Hei Fat Choi

Today we were learning about the Chinese New Year. We learned about how many days the Chinese New Year can last , What they eat in the Chinese New Year, What colour they were in the Chinese New Year and What animals represent the years each year. I worked with Fui.