Chinese New Year is a time of joy and celebration. During Chinese New Year, people do spring cleaning. They also decorate their doors with couplets which are usually red, but sometime, it can be gold in color too. Chinese people also eat various types of food such as New Year cake (Nian Gao) for being in a higher position in all circumstances, fish for having more money saved each year, and Chinese dumplings (Jiaozi) with a coin inside them, it is said that whoever gets the dumplings with the coin will have good luck in the coming year. Some people also shoot off firecrackers!
Let’s take a look at how students in our school celebrated the Chinese New Year with their family during the break:
For Chinese New Year, my family and I didn’t put a lot of decorations around the house but we did buy snacks in the Chinese New Year markets. This is the time when we spend more time together and be grateful for receiving red envelopes (anonymous).
During my Chinese New Year break, my family and I went to Taichung, and visited my grandparents (anonymous).
At the time of gathering and celebrating for a brand new year, my family spent our Chinese New Year at Nantou, where my grandparents live. During this vacation, we lived in our grandparents’ house peacefully and comfortably with no stress, great food, and lots of red envelopes! This family reunion not only filled my stomach and wallet but also filled my vacation with thanks and wonder. (Mandy Chan, G12)
For Chinese New Year, my family and I put a lot of decorations around the house and bought snacks in the Chinese New Year markets. This is the time when we spend more time together and go on family trips (Katherine Delange, G10)
I celebrated my Chinese New Year by visiting my grandma and having lunch with her. After lunch, we watched some television and she gave my brother and me red envelopes. We didn’t know that we would stay that long, so we had dinner too. (Nathan Wang, G9)
Before our Chinese New Year break started, we were privileged to have a special Chinese New Year program in our school where we invited talented drummers who played the Chinese drums. We also had the chance to see the Chinese lion dance! Aside from inviting professionals to take part in our Chinese New Year program, we also had the chance to see our talented lower school students dance! After that, the D’TORCH orchestra played a few songs and rocked the stage with the Michael Jackson Medley! Mr. James Lin also played a violin solo in the program. Lastly, we also showed some school spirit when the DOMNET leaders from the Philippines made us all dance to the song “That We May Be One”.
The way people celebrated Chinese New Year may differ from one another, but there will always be something in common, and that is the joy and happiness of celebration.
