This new year will be Year of the Pig. At Chinese New Year people get together with their families to celebrate the new year. People will eat dumplings and New Year Cake. There are many special dishes that people eat.
Families decorate their homes in red and hang lucky messages on the wall.
On New Year’s Day we dress in new, smart clothes and visit the homes of our friends and family to wish them a Happy and Lucky New Year.
Young people also love Chinese New Year because they receive red packets with money inside.
At Chinese New Year, we can see dragon dances and lion dances performed on the street. Shops and streets are decorated with red lanterns to bring good luck.
We can also go to Victoria Harbour to watch the beautiful firework display.
What will you do this Chinese New Year?
Simon, I think you are right. I also like Chinese New Year. This Chinese New Year, I watched a film about a pig. This film was talking about a spider help the little pig. It was very fun. It also made me want to cry.
This year, I got many red packet and lucky money. I put the money in the bank so I can save the money and use them when I grow up. How do you use your lucky money, Simon?
The second day of the Chinese New Year was the happiest day in Chinese New Year. In morning, I got many red packet from my relatives. In the evening, we took a taxi to Tsim Sa Tsui. First, we had a yummy dinner at a restaurant. Then, the restaurant’s staff took us near the sea. Then, we watched the beautiful firework there. We all shout “Wow!” many time. I hope I can go to there again later.
I know in Korea, people can play with the firework. I hope Hong Kong can let people to play with the firework too!
I think Chinese Year New is very happy! I like this festival too.I can get many red packets and I can eat many candies or dim sums.It is really so yummy!
I like this Chinese New Year too! In the morning at the first day of Chinese New Year,I
In Chinese New Year, Chinese people always said that the colour red will brings happiness and good fortune. But I don’t like red colour.So, I wear clothes of other colour. Do you like red colour, Simon?
I like eating sweets in Chinese New Year because I can eat many many kinds of sweets, they are free of charge and yummy.
This new year will be Year of the Pig. I can see many pigs pictures on the street.
The first day of Chinese New Year, I went to my grandma’s home to have dinner. It had many foods, like chicken, fish, soup, shrimps and vegetables. After dinner, I played and ate fruit with my family and relatives.
I was busy at this Chinese New Year holidays because I had many homeworks. I think I can do homeworks quickly at next year.
hellow,Simon I am 4a class Natalie Lau.Can you add some animals pictures?Look like cat,dog,hamster,rabbit…………… in this blog.I lke this blog very much.Can you teach me how to make a blog?If you can, you can sent e-mail to me.
hi!Simon I think Chinese New Year have many story. Here had some thing about Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year Parade, 2006. Courtesy of the City of Sydney
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The new year begins on the first day of the Chinese calendar, which usually falls in February, and the festivities continue for 15 days.
During Chinese New Year celebrations, people wear red clothes, give children ‘lucky money’ in red envelopes and set off firecrackers. Red symbolises fire, which the Chinese believe drives away bad luck. Family members gather at each other’s homes for extravagant meals.
Chinese New Year ends with the lantern festival, where people hang decorated lanterns in temples and carry lanterns to an evening parade under the light of the full moon. The highlight of the lantern festival is often the dragon dance. The dragon can stretch over 30 metres long and is typically made of silk, paper and bamboo.
The Chinese in Australia
Chinese lantern in doorway, Sydney, 2007. Courtesy of the City of Sydney
Chinese people first came to Australia in large numbers during the Gold Rush in the 1850s and 60s. About one-third of the miners were Chinese. Many Chinese-Australian families can trace their settlement in Australia to that time. Monuments and buildings developed by Chinese settlers serve as reminders of the long history of Chinese immigration to Australia. Examples remain in towns like Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria. Memorabilia is displayed in museums like the Chinese Museum, Melbourne, and the Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo.
Sydney and Melbourne have Chinatowns – Dixon Street in Sydney, and the area around Little Bourke Street in Melbourne. These are a hub for restaurants, Chinese grocery stores and other small businesses, and centres for the celebration of festivals such as Chinese New Year. Brisbane also has a significant Chinatown area in Fortitude Valley.
Celebrations
The Chinese-Australian community holds a variety of events to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. The Great Dragon appears at the Chinese New Year celebrations in the streets of Melbourne. In 2003 a new dragon – the Millennium Dai Loong Dragon – was commissioned from the Foshan Arts Institute China. The Millennium Dai Loong Dragon in Melbourne is carried by over 200 people. It is awakened every year with a ceremony of offerings to the Gods followed by a lion dance. Between wakings, the Millennium Dai Loong Dragon can be seen at the Chinese Museum in Melbourne’s Chinatown.
In Sydney, festivities stretch to three weeks and include a Grand Parade, Dragon Boat and Sedan Chair Races and night markets. The Chinese New Year is celebrated in other ways all around the country.
The Chinese calendar
Sun Loong dragon. Bendigo Chinese Association Golden Dragon Museum.
Australia follows the Gregorian calendar. Although the People’s Republic of China follows the Gregorian calendar for its day-to-day business, the dates of the Chinese New Year and other important festivals are determined by the Chinese calendar which is thought to have been invented by Emperor Huangdi, nearly 3000 years BC.
The Chinese tradition follows a different calendar to the calendar followed in Australia. The Chinese lunar year is divided into 12 months of 29 or 30 days. The calendar is adjusted to the length of the solar year by the addition of extra months at regular intervals. The years are arranged in major cycles of 60 years.
Each successive year is named after one of 12 animals, and these 12-year cycles are continuously repeated. The Chinese New Year is celebrated at the second new moon after the winter solstice and falls between 21 January and 19 February on the Gregorian calendar. The year 2007 translates to the Chinese year 4704-4705.
Chinese Zodiac
Rooster Dance, Town Hall, Sydney, 2005. Courtesy of the City of Sydney
Chinese New Year, pronounced in Chinese as ‘xin nian’, occurs on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar. There are different versions of the story behind the development of the Chinese zodiac, but all the versions are based around a race called by an Emperor to determine the animals to be represented.
The cunning Rat hitched a ride on the back of the Ox and crossed the winning line first. The Rat was followed (in order) by Ox (Cow), Tiger, Rabbit (Cat), Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram (Goat, Sheep), Monkey, Rooster (Chicken), Dog and Pig (Boar).
According to the Chinese zodiac, you take on the characteristics of the animal associated with the year of your birth, but those characteristics are also influenced by what time of day you’re born, what fixed element you belong to (water, metal, wood, fire, earth), as well as the influence of Yin and Yang
Simon,I think Chinese New Year is a happy day because Ican have many money with red packets. Last chinese New yaer, I went to see the drangan dance ,it was really fun because the drangon were so cute .I eat the candies, dumplings and seeds. I was very good.
Simon, I like Chinse New Year, because I have the Chinse New Year Holidays! The first day, I went to Chinse visited my grandparents, auntie and uncle. I got many red packets or lucky money. I will put it into my “Saving Account Passbook” and use them when I grow up.
The second day morning, I went to my mother-in-law’s home. There have many relatives in there. So, I said her/his name, then, he/she could know where am I. I got many many red packet there. At night, we ate our dinner with my grandparents.
What did you do in Chinse New Year ?
Well, this year I went to have dinner at my friend’s house, it was a big dinner, but I don’t get red packets like you guys. January 1st is usually a bigger New Year for me. Christmas is a little more like Chinese New Year for me, I get presents and see my family (if I go home to the UK).
But Chinese New Year in Hong Kong is great, there is so much to see and do. And, above all, so much to eat!
Simon
hello!Simon!On this New Year I felt fun and happy very much because I got most lucky money in my family!And I could eat and play with my family too.But I know all of the children like Chinese New Year because they can had a long holidays.
Hi!Simon!I like New Year very much.Because I can get many luck money.
Simon, I like Chince New Year very much. In New Year, I feel I am lucky because my family give me many red packets with money. In my home there have many sweet . I feel New Year can make people and there family happy .
I love summer very much because I can have ice cream all days, also in summer hoildays, but it is too hot this year, I will not go out too many times, just often, bye.