Happy Chinese New Year! Chinese New Year is the yearly holiday celebrated by billions of people around the world. The celebration goes on for around 2 weeks, making it a long and exciting holiday. This year is the year of the Tiger, which was previously the Ox.
Chinese New Year is the annual holiday that is a time of celebration. Families come together to celebrate the fresh new year, and to pray for prosperity and luck. It is based around the Chinese calendar, as it starts on February 1st, and has an annual zodiac sign to represent the year. This year highlights the zodiac of the Tiger, which is actually a sign of bad luck. It is believed in Chinese astrology that if the year highlights your zodiac, Tai Sui, the Chinese god of age, will curse you.
During Chinese New Year, families gather to feast, pray, and give each other red envelopes. Red envelopes are packets filled with money, which symbolizes good luck and prosperity for the new year. Families will also do things like clean the house, to represent a fresh start. Decorations are hung up, and people wear the color red, to symbolize luck, joy and happiness. During the holiday, performers parade through the streets. People carrying dragon puppets dance around, making it seem as if the dragon is moving, which is called the dragon dance.
Our school has many Chinese students who celebrate the holiday. Mia Low, an 8th grader at Rio Norte, says that, “I celebrate both but mainly Chinese New Year.
I do get red envelopes and during those holidays my family and I will usually eat a bigger dinner and invite the other family over.” Mia Low is one of the many, many people who celebrate Chinese New Year world wide.
Chinese New Year is fast approaching, and families are already starting to gather to celebrate the holiday. People are also excited to watch the festivals and parades through the streets, and many people are looking forward to the Year of the Tiger.