Chinese New Year: school edition

This is the first grade class I work with

Tomorrow is officially the Chinese New Year lunar holiday, which is the most widely celebrated holiday here. On Friday (last day before a week-long break), we had our celebrations at school. The Mandarin teachers did a special chapel, and everyone dressed up in traditional Chinese outfits. For kids, this is the most exciting holiday because they get Lai See, or money in red packets. Single people also get this money, and married couples and families are expected to give it. This is a popular of the year to travel, but many people stay here and visit family and have traditional meals. It's also customary to have a box filled with candies and fruits in your home, each representing something different. For example, if you want to someone to have a prosperous business, you would give them a different jellied candy than if you were hoping someone would have a baby this year. This is the year of the boar, so pig decorations are everywhere.

A bulletin board at school...representing the traditional dragon dance.

Sara (music teacher) and me in our traditional outfits we got made at the tailor in Schenzen, the shipping city of 8 million people right across the border.

Korean and Japanese students also wore their traditional outfits, so some kids had these Korean clothes and Japanese students wore their kimonos...beautiful!

Celebrating with one of my students.