Happy Lunar (Chinese) new year, also called spring festival to everybody who celebrates it (and as always, have a nice day even if you don’t celebrate that particular holiday, no discrimination here:D). We’re not Chinese, we’re not even Asian, we’re plain old boring Caucasians living in the middle of Europe. But we love to learn about other cultures and what better way to do it than with holidays? So far I haven’t met an Asian person who’d hold that against me – so I think it’s fine:)
So what’s it all about? Well, it’s the most important holiday that people celebrate all over East and Southeast Asia, not only in China and Asian communities celebrate it elsewhere as well (usually for several days, up to 15 days!). It is all about removing the bad and the old and celebrating the new and good (aren’t we all thrilled about that, especially this past few years? We could use a new start, right?;))
How is it celebrated? The colour of happiness and New year is red, so there is a lot of red clothing and decorations during the celebrations. Kids usually get coins or paper money in red envelopes and oranges or tangerines. In regards to colour, you shouldn’t eat white food since white is the colour of death and you shouldn’t wear black either or wash your hair on New years day.
Noise, bright colours, particularly red and flashes are supposed to scare the evil spirits (the monster Nian (“year”)) so there are a lot of drums, firecrackers and fireworks during the celebrations. Giant dancing dragons roam the streets in parades along with lion dancers, drummers and mascots (giant masks and people in costumes). On an intimate note, people clean and decorate their homes, visit their parents, pray to gods, pay respect to their ancestors and feast with their families.
The celebrations end on the 15th of February with the lantern festival that I’ve already briefly written about and that happens on the full moon.
Every year is dedicated to one animal in their Chinese zodiac and this year will be the year of the Tiger so to celebrate it with art, let’s draw or paint a tiger:) Or if you don’t like tigers you could make a dragon with kids (you can borrow kids for the art activities if needed, parent’s usually let them enjoy with ants and friends;). Dragon is always welcome during their new year as it is the symbol of power and good fortune.
So how can we celebrate a little bit? We always cook a Chinese meal, eat it with sticks and put the red tablecloth on the table – that is the least we have done. But when we have the time we try other activities, inspired by the Chinese new year. Like writing Chinese characters in red-coloured salt with gold sparkles in it (I even added the five-spice powder to it to make it smell good:)
I made red-coloured salt dough and put some gold coins in it for some sensory play:
Don’t worry, kids will find the way to play with it;)
Very Arty Fairy 