We celebrated Chinese New Year with the help of our Mandarin Language Assistant Wang Zijung to include some Chinese traditional dancing. The celebrations begins with the start of the Year of the Rabbit on Sunday 22nd January and finished with the Lantern Festival on 5th February. Our cooks prepared a superb Chinese lunch on Tuesday 31st when everyone could wear a red accessory or article of clothing (the Chinese lucky colour and traditional at New Year)..On Thursday 7th we held special Chinese sharing assemblies where children could show each other some of the art work they had produced and sing and play their favourite Chinese songs.
Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year?
The Chinese new year is a lunar new year which is why the date changes every year in our calendar. Like the Moslem and Jewish calendar and many cultures across the world it is based on observation of the cycle of the moon rather than the sun. However, it is in China that the New Year is a major festival, also called the Spring Festival, and it is the Chinese New Year we celebrate at Woodside as China and Mandarin language are part of our curriculum.