I am totally slacking on the blog, so I'm gonna try to fix that.
Last week was the start of Chinese New Year and this year is Year of the Ox. Chinese New Year is a pretty big deal here because most Thai's are actually Thai-Chinese. Most school's have the first three days of it off and all the employees were pretty upset that we didn't, but I'm glad we didn't because that meant we got to celebrate with kids and holidays with kids are really fun and I got to learn a lot about it.
Chinese New Year is 15 days long, but (from what I've experienced anyways) the most celebrated days are the first 3 days. Most people prepare for the new year, the day before it begins by making food that symbolizes different things like prosperity and happiness and cleaning. The cleaning symbolizes clearing away the bad luck and making room for good luck. I guess you aren't supposed to clean during the first week of the new year because you will wipe away your luck for the year.
So last week at school, we talked about all these things with the kids and a couple of Chinese parents came in to read some Chinese stories. We also made dragon masks with them and paper lanterns together on Monday and Tuesday, because on Wednesday the preschool department had a parade. It was so cute! Everybody came to school in their Chinese costumes and before snack they paraded outside to Chinese music. The head of the department made a giant dragon head for people to wear and have kids walk underneath. They were precious. Then we came inside and served dim sum and mandarin oranges to all the kids. All day long, the kids were bouncing off the walls and playing with their lanterns and putting together puzzles of an ox. haha We got nothing accomplished! haha
Last week was the start of Chinese New Year and this year is Year of the Ox. Chinese New Year is a pretty big deal here because most Thai's are actually Thai-Chinese. Most school's have the first three days of it off and all the employees were pretty upset that we didn't, but I'm glad we didn't because that meant we got to celebrate with kids and holidays with kids are really fun and I got to learn a lot about it.
Chinese New Year is 15 days long, but (from what I've experienced anyways) the most celebrated days are the first 3 days. Most people prepare for the new year, the day before it begins by making food that symbolizes different things like prosperity and happiness and cleaning. The cleaning symbolizes clearing away the bad luck and making room for good luck. I guess you aren't supposed to clean during the first week of the new year because you will wipe away your luck for the year.
So last week at school, we talked about all these things with the kids and a couple of Chinese parents came in to read some Chinese stories. We also made dragon masks with them and paper lanterns together on Monday and Tuesday, because on Wednesday the preschool department had a parade. It was so cute! Everybody came to school in their Chinese costumes and before snack they paraded outside to Chinese music. The head of the department made a giant dragon head for people to wear and have kids walk underneath. They were precious. Then we came inside and served dim sum and mandarin oranges to all the kids. All day long, the kids were bouncing off the walls and playing with their lanterns and putting together puzzles of an ox. haha We got nothing accomplished! haha
For our parade, some of the teachers wore Chinese outfits too. Note took me down to Chinatown on Monday after school and helped me find a dress. Chinatown was hopping. They had a huge parade going on and fireworks and the streets were all closed down and their were people everywhere. It was nuts. Chinatown is usually crazy and busy, but it was at least 3 times that last week. It was great fun!
2 comments:
You slacker!! Not really...
Sounds the Chinese New Year is a good time. Yay!!
Have fun and I will talk to you soon. Love you
MOM XOXO
Sounds like fun! This year is one of the few years where the animal is different for the Vietnamese and the Chinese, so for us it's the year of the water buffalo. Happy lunar new year!
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