The followin clip gives us a good overview of the traditions of Chinese New Year and why certain rituals are done at this particular time:
A huge part of the Chinese New Year customs and traditions have to do with family life, as shown by the following clip:
Even though the generic parts of the Chinese New Year tradition are still practised by Chinese people around the world, the more traditional (countryside) parts of the festival are not always known to the younger generation who are more used to living in cities:
Spring cleaning the house before Chinese Yew Year is part of the tradition of the festival, so we cleaned our house as much as possible with the major effort going into rearranging and cleaning Tiger's bedroom so that he now has his own personal place to work.
After that, we went to Chinatown to buy the ingredients that we would need for our new year's eve Reunion Dinner,
as well as a few decorations for the house.
London Chinatown is the most festive place in the UK to get a feel for Chinese New Year. However, the scale of the celebration and the number of people involved are nowhere close to some places in the Far East, where the festival is featured more prominently:
After the decorations were put up around the house, Tiger also arranged a centrepiece of a bowl of tangerines with stem and leaves intact to represent wholeness, balance, wealth, and good luck. Orange-coloured citrus fruit is a usual display during Chinese New Year for its symbolic meaning. The orange colour represents gold or wealth, while the Chinese names of various citrus fruit sound like the word "ji" (吉), which means good luck.
Have you noticed the red table cloth? We're nearly ready for the Reunion Dinner!
This post is linked up to:
- Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #12
- History and Geography Meme: Ancient Greece activities
- Entertaining and Educational - Energy
- Collage Friday: Thankful for Homeschool
- Weekly Wrap-up: The One with all the Snow
- The (New) Homeschool Mother's Journal (2/1/14)
- Hip Homeschool Hop (2/4/14)
- Chinese Activities Link Up
I wish we could get oranges with the stems still attached. Looks like a great celebration!
ReplyDeleteI think you'll have to go to a farm shop or specialty Asian supermarkets to get oranges with stems attached. We got ours from a farm shop. :-)
DeleteThis is awesome. I plan to watch the videos tonight when the house is quiet. Thanks for sharing your Chinese New Year lessons.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Julie. I hope you enjoy watching the videos! :-)
DeleteThat was the best post I've seen on Chinese New Year. After watching the videos I have a much better understanding of all the crafts that go with the traditions. The lion dancers were incredible. Dancing on top of the platforms I was afraid they would fall. It must take lots of practice.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you've found the videos useful, Julie! I agree that the lion dancers were incredible. It takes much practice and coordination skills to be able to do the stunt, remember the dance steps, and wave the props around. It's also extremely strenuous for the dancers, so I've always watched the lion dance with much awe. :-)
DeleteI'm going to watch all of these tomorrow. I can't wait to see them. You found a lot of great videos!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll enjoy watching the videos as much as we did! :-)
DeleteI loved the videos, but I especially loved your preparations for the preparation of the Chinese New Year. Thank you for linking up at the Creative Culture Kids Blog Hop, and congrats for being this month's feature!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the feature, Frances! What an honour! I'm glad you've found the post and video useful. :-)
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