Happy Chinese New Year

Gung Hay Fat Choy

This week in homeschool we learned about the Chinese culture and their New Year celebrations.  Then, we had our own celebration with some friends and taught them about all the fun customs that we had learned about.  The Chinese New Year is based on the Lunar calendar so this year of the Horse fell on Jan. 31 for New Years Eve.  The Chinese celebrate for one to two weeks following the New Years so you all have plenty of time to create your own.

Here are the things we did at our party to celebrate Gung Hay Fat Choy (happy new years):

1. The kids got in their asian best outfits to be super festive.  We also painted their nails Red to help celebrate.  Red and orange are the colors of joy and good luck for the New Year.  We also painted our own Happy New Year sign on the door in Chinese drawings to welcome our guests.  We got a bowl of oranges to give out and for decoration.

2.  Georgia read to them from a book that we checked out at the library to give everyone a feel for what we were celebrating.

3.  Georgia led everyone with some beginner Tai Chai.  We pushed some walls, moved calm waters, tabletopped, moved our balls.  They enjoyed it.

4.  Ezra taught us some of his karate moves.

5.  We all did a 5 minute meditation.

6.  We watched a couple of short videos on Youtube about Nian the dragon.  See Here, Here.

7.  Then, the kids got creative and created their own Nian.  We made lots of noise to scare the monster away!

8.  I read them all the story of how the Zodiac came to be.  We then figured out all of our Zodiac signs and personality traits.  The kids painted their own zodiac signs in Chinese drawings.

9.  The kids had some free time while I ordered some Chinese food.  We got Vegetable Lo Mein which symbolizes a long life, potstickers which represents good fortune and egg drop soup because it tastes good!  When the delivery man came, all the kids rushed to the door with an orange to give him and shouted out "Gung Hay Fat Choy".  He was super impressed and even took a picture.  

10.  We all brought baggies of different amounts of money.  After lunch, each person drew from a pot and got to keep the money.  The kids LOVED that game!

11.  Last but not least, we lit a candle and gave big hugs in our minds to all of our ancestors who have paved the way for us to be here today.  When saying goodbye, they all took an orange to go home.

We all had a great day celebrating!