Chinese New Year

by Tricia

Last weekend, we had our first Chinese New Year celebration. Chinese New Year (or “Spring Festival”) is one of the most important Chinese celebrations and, like many holidays, it is celebrated with good food and time with family. In fact, Chinese New Year is one of the few times that many Chinese workers get enough time off to go home and see family, causing a massive migration of people and astounding wait times for public transportation. (Troy and I watched an interesting documentary on this phenomenon recently: Last Train Home (IMDB link here, Troy’s review here)

Here is a glimpse at some of the traditions we incorporated:

• A thorough cleaning of the house in preparation for the holidays (i.e. sweep out the old to welcome in the new)
  
  We made an ambitious cleaning and organizing list, but are sadly still working on it. At least I can honestly report that our pantry is a little more organized than it was a few months ago…
• Wear new red clothing
  
  We of course made sure that Madelyn was ready for this tradition. Thank you Auntie Shelley for the cute outfit!
  
  
• Give red envelopes with money
  
  Madelyn was more than happy to receive red envelopes, although I think she immediately enjoyed the red envelopes with chocolate coins more than the ones with actual money. We learned that an even-amount of money (i.e. $8) is luckier than an odd-amount (i.e. $7).
• Dumplings
  
  We made and ate dumplings and were pretty pleased with how they turned out. Thank you Auntie Ning Ning and Uncle Dew for the dumpling press and steamer baskets! We also had spring rolls, mandarin oranges, and Nian Gao – a red bean cake. (Here is the recipe for Nian Gao, for anyone interested in what it looks like: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chinesenewyear/ss/baked-nian-gao.htm) It was very sweet, and very different from the chocolate desserts we typically tend to make for holidays. Madelyn also got to try chopsticks with her second round of dumplings – I don’t think she managed to get anything in her mouth with them though.
  
  

Last week, we also had the chance to visit Tiffany’s (Auntie Ning Ning) classroom and teach her fourth graders about some of these Chinese New Year traditions. Each of them made a red envelope and learned how to write some of the Chinese characters for “luck” (http://chineseculture.about.com/library/picks/aatp_luckysymbols.htm). Before we left, Madelyn gave each of them a chocolate coin for their red envelope.

Labels: chinese new year, classroom adventures, madelyn