Chinese New Year
The Newington boys welcomed the Year of the Sheep with hand made red paper cuttings, red pockets, auspicious decorations, candy boxes, paper firecrackers, red streamers and hand puppets. According to an old legend a monster named ‘Nian’ (年) would come out to scare the Chinese villagers on the eve of the Chinese New Year. In order to scare this monster away, the villagers put up red decorations, as the monster is afraid of the colour red. They would also fire red firecrackers, as loud noises also makes the monster run away. Chinese people also believe that red is an auspicious colour.
The boys learnt about the practices and the food eaten during the Chinese New Year, as well as the popular ‘Gong xi gong xi’ (恭喜恭喜) song that is sang throughout the Chinese New Year. Each boy also took home with them a red packet.
Emily Lo – LOTE Teacher
