Chinese New Year

We have been learning about Chinese New Year. We have found out lots of interesting facts about how this amazing festival is celebrated.

We wanted to find out:
How is Chinese New Year celebrated?
Why is there a dragon at Chinese New Year?
What sort of food do they eat at Chinese New Year?
Do they get presents at Chinese New Year?

Here is what we have found out.

Chinese New Year is a time when families get together to celebrate. The celebration lasts for 15 days.

At the start of the celebration, people clean their houses to sweep away any bad luck and to welcome in good luck. For decorations, people use the colour red for good luck.

We have also learned that dragon dances are done to bring good luck for the coming New Year. We found out that the longer the dragon is, the more good luck it will bring. We decided to make our own colourful dragons so that we could do our own dragon dances. Here we are making our dragons. Aren't they beautiful?

Children are given a red envelope from adults which are filled with lucky money. This envelope is called Hong Bao.

Chinese New Year fireworks are lit to scare away bad luck with their loud noises and bring in the New Year.

Families gather together during Chinese New Year and have a large feast of traditional Chinese food like fish, chicken, rice dumplings and sticky sweet rice pudding.

 The last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations is the Lantern Festival. Families walk the streets carrying their lit lanterns and visit displays of lanterns.

We made our own Chinese lanterns and decorated them so they looked beautiful.