Colourful lanterns, Tai Chi, lion dance, chopsticks and Chinese food. This is how we immersed ourselves in the Chinese culture on Chinese Day! The school’s Inaugural Chinese Day was set on Monday 8 September, the same day as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Following a weekend of celebration across Sydney, we continued with the celebration at Newington Lindfield on the actual day. This day is the celebration of the harvest moon, based on an ancient Chinese legend of Chang e and her husband Hou Yi, an archer. Chang e became immortal upon taking the immortality medicine rewarded to her husband Hou Yi by the emperor for shooting down 9 suns and saving the kingdom from the disaster of the heat.

After an explanation of the legend of the Harvest Moon festival and a parade of students displaying traditional Chinese clothing we had a peaceful start to the morning routine with Tai Chi, led by Linda Gu from Stanmore. This was followed by a range of cultural immersion activities such as chopstick races, lantern decorating, legend storybook making and writing Chinese poetry on a Chinese fan. The lion dance performance was exciting and the Chinese lunchboxes were an outstanding way to end Chinese Day!

Emily Lo – Mandarin Teacher

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