[Thriving Despite Us] Multicultural Monday #3 - A Newbie's Chinese New Year

[Kate]

This third Multicultural Monday happens to fall on the first day of the Chinese New Year.  Historically, the Hlava clan has not done much to celebrate the Chinese New Year. However, I am committed to broadening our horizons this year and focusing on many cultures and not just the ones that make up our family.  So Chinese New Year here we come.

Because we have not celebrated this before, I want to make sure my children start by learning some symbolism and meaning of the holiday.  There is a great deal to learn and since my kids have the attention spans of gnats, I decided to focus on one thing this year and expand from here on out.  This year we are going to learn about the Chinese Calendar/Zodiac. 

Each year in the cyclical Chinese calendar has a corresponding animal in the Chinese zodiac.  This is the year of the Dragon which is exciting because it symbolizes “power, success and luck.”  (See http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/01/23/2003523895)  All things that the Hlava family would not mind experiencing.

 

The cycle goes like this:

1. Rat
2. Ox
3. Tiger
4. Rabbit
5. Dragon
6. Snake
7. Horse
8. Sheep
9. Monkey
10. Rooster
11. Dog
12. Boar

Once you get to year 12, and celebrate the year of the Boar, the entire cycle starts over at the year of the Rat.  If you want to figure your Chinese Zodiac look to the year you were born.  If you were born before the date of the Chinese New Year, your animal sign is the one from the previous year.

Western Year	Chinese Year	Date of Chinese New Year	Symbol
2015	4712	February 19	Goat
2014	4711	January 31	Horse
2013	4710	February 10	Snake
2012	4709	January 23	Dragon
2011	4708	February 3	Rabbit
2010	4707	February 14	Tiger
2009	4706	January 26	Ox
2008	4705	February 7	Rat
2007	4704	February 18	Boar (pig)
2006	4703	January 29	Dog
2005	4702	February 9	Rooster
2004	4701	January 22	Monkey
2003	4700	February 1	Goat
2002	4699	February 12	Horse
2001	4698	January 24	Snake
2000	4697	February 5	Dragon
1999	4696	February 16	Rabbit
1998	4695	January 28	Tiger
1997	4694	February 7	Ox

I looked up each of the animals that corresponds to my family’s birth years.  I learned that Jeff is a Dog (so many places I can go with this, I am choosing to say nothing), Will is a Tiger, Elyse is a Dragon, James is a Goat, and Rosie is a Rooster, like me. Yup, I am a Rooster.  If you know me this should not be surprising.  I love Roosters and even have a Rooster collection.  I am also a huge fan of the South Carolina GameCocks but that has more to do with the name of the team and the fact that I have the maturity of a sixth grade boy. 

There are lots of websites that explain the characteristics of each zodiac animal and I recommend looking them up. You just don’t know what you may learn about yourself or a family member –  

As part of our celebration tonite, I am going to give each of my children a page describing their zodiac animal with a picture of the animal and a list of its characteristics.  I’ll let them decide if they think it’s accurate.  I do think it is going to make for very interesting dinner conversation.

Yesterday, we made a dragon craft in honor of this Year of the Dragon.  Will was watching football and there was just no way he was going to extract himself so he missed out.  I’m sure his 13 year old self is crushed.

There are all kinds of great craft ideas online.  We incorporated some of the ideas from here http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lion/ to make our own Dragon Puppets.

Here’s what we did –

I found this dragon head printable - http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/cegif/newyear/chinesedragon1.gif

Which we printed out and colored.  

Then we cut a piece of 8 X 10 paper in half length wise and accordion folded it.  

We also taped straws to the back of our dragon heads.  

We cut out dragon tails and colored those too. We taped straws to the back of the dragon tails and then attached all the pieces to the accordion folded “body.”  

 

We ended up with these awesome dragon puppets:

James has held onto his dragon since he completed it – hard to tell who is who, isn’t it?

Even little Rosie made one mostly by herself. (I love scotch tape and child safety scissors.)

Tonite for dinner, I thought we'd have Italian...

Just joshin'...We are going to have Chinese food, of course.  Traditional Chinese New Year foods are all about symbolism.   

• Chicken and fish, for example, symbolize happiness and prosperity--especially when served whole.
• Dishes made with oranges represent wealth and good fortune because they are China's most plentiful fruit.
• Noodles represent longevity: therefore, they should never be cut!
• Duck symbolizes fidelity, while eggs signify fertility.
• Bean curd or tofu, however, is avoided because its white color suggests death and misfortune.

The above italics are quoted from http://allrecipes.com/howto/lunar-new-year/

 

Even though eggs signify fertility and this generation of the Jeff Hlava family is as big as it is going to get, I am going to make Chinese Tea Leaf Eggs.(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chinese-Tea-Leaf-Eggs/Detail.aspx) 

(Picture from Allrecipes.com) This recipe sounds so interesting to me and they are so pretty, aren’t they?  My kids are big hard boiled egg eaters so I am curious to see how they respond to such a unique take on a familiar dish.   I hate to admit this, but we will order in the rest of the meal. This working, blogging mom is only capable of so much creativity.  I will be sure to order chicken, fish and uncut noodles and am going to place a bowl of oranges on the table.  Avoiding bean curd or tofu is not much of a sacrifice for this group so we should be good. That is how we are going to celebrate the Chinese New Year. What are you going to do?

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Posted By Kate to Thriving Despite Us at 1/23/2012 05:30:00 AM