Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year! We spent Sunday afternoon filling 24 red envelopes with gold chocolate coins to bring into Josie's classroom. I'll be joining her class the last hour of morning kindergarten to assist in our very own CNY celebration.
In case you are wondering, red is the color of happiness. Special envelopes (
like these) are filled with a gift of money and are traditionally given to children (
and unmarried adults) on Chinese New Year. In addition to sharing these special envelopes with Josie's classmates, we'll also be coloring dragon masks so that we can have our very own Chinese New Year's parade.
The dragon, represents strength and brings good luck. Every Chinese New Year's parade ends with a dragon.
The dragon has the eyes of a rabbit, the mouth of a camel, the antlers of a deer, the scales of a carp, the whiskers of a catfish, the talons of an eagle, the legs of a tiger, the ears of a cow and the body of a serpent. As the dragon passes by fireworks explode all around.
The old year ends with a roar as people celebrate the beginning of a new one.
As you can imagine, Josie is very excited about sharing her special holiday with her classmates. I'll be bringing the camera along and can't wait to capture our amazing celebration.
Happy Year of the Dragon!!
Josie was very proud to wear her special outfit to school.
At circle time, we talked about the significance of the dragon and then Josie's classmates got busy decorating their masks.
After their masks were colored, the students posed for pictures.
Don't they make fabulous dragons!!
Josie then passed out her red envelopes and gold chocolate coins.
A fun time was had by all.
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