By: Di,
on 2/6/2011
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| Red Hare © Diana Ting Delosh Ink & Watercolor Wishing all a Happy, Creative, Productive and Prosperous Year of the Hare! web: dianadelosh.com blog: dtdelosh.blogspot.com |
By: Lauren,
on 2/3/2011
This year, the Chinese New Year begins today, February 3rd, and people all around the world will be ringing in the year of the Rabbit. Oxford Chinese Dictionary editor Julie Kleeman shares some insight into the traditions associated with the Chinese New Year celebrations.
The Spring Festival
Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival (春节 chunjie) is a fifteen-day celebration beginning on the second new moon after the winter solstice and ending on the full moon fifteen days later.
Sounds complicated? That’s because when marking traditional holidays the Chinese still use a lunisolar calendar, a system that incorporates elements of the lunar calendar with those of the solar calendar.
The Oxford Chinese Dictionary boasts a centre section that contains, among a host of useful lists including those containing Chinese measure words, kinship terms, ethnic groups, SMS abbreviations and a chronology of Chinese historical and cultural events, a page dedicated to Chinese festivals and holidays, featuring brief descriptions of each event and its corresponding date in the lunar calendar.
The list kicks off with 正月初 – the first of the first lunar month, i.e. the New Year, or 春节 chunjie. If the information provided here whets your appetite for more, you can always look up the term itself, and just below the entry for 春节 chunjie you’ll find a handy culture panel on this, the most important of Chinese festivals.
Food
According to the boxed note, 春节 chunjie is a time for families to reunite for a celebratory meal. The main New Year celebrations take place on New Year’s Eve or 除夕 chuxi. This is the biggest of all New Year’s spreads and the dinner is likely to include a veritable feast of delicacies. Chief among them is fish, because 鱼 or yu (the Chinese word for ‘fish’) sounds a lot like 余 or yu (the Chinese word for ‘abundance’).
In northern China no New Year’s Eve is complete without 饺子 (jiaozi), the dumplings, boiled in water, for which northern cuisine is famous. The Oxford Chinese Dictionary contains a culture box dedicated to the popular snack, explaining how it is made and why it is such a staple of the New Year’s feast.
Greetings
One of the most popular greetings at this time of year is 恭喜发财 gongxi facai or ‘may you be prosperous!’ Look up 恭喜 gongxi in the dictionary and you will find 恭喜发财 gongxi facai listed as an example. You will also find a cross-reference to a usage box on popular Chinese greetings or 问候 wenhou that contains other ways of wishing a happy New Year to your Chinese friends.
Spring Festival couplets
Having the dictionary to hand during the Chinese Spring Festival might also help you to decipher 春联 chunlian or ‘Spring Festival couplets’, the black Chinese characters on bright red paper that are pasted up and hung on doorways and storefronts in the run-up to the Chinese New Year.
There are a huge variety of Spring Festival couplets to suit the scenario. Stores generally use couplets that make references to their line of trade, summoning in good fortune in businesses, or a good reputation. At family homes, couplets usually contain messages that invite good luck and happiness for the coming year.
Each couplet is made up of two lines of verse called the “head” and “tail”, which correspond with one other phonologically and syntactically word-for-word and phrase-for-phrase. The “head” is posted on the right side of the front door and the “tail
By: Ginger Nielson,
on 2/1/2011
By: timeoutdad,
on 1/31/2011
The Year of the Rabbit: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin
Reviewed by: Renny Fong
About the author:
Oliver Chin has written the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, Welcome to Monster Isle, Julie Black Belt, Timmy and Tammy’s Train of Thought, The Adventures of WonderBaby, and other books. His family lives in San Francisco, CA.
About the illustrator:
Justin Roth illustrated The Year of the Tiger and has contributed to animated TV series for Nickelodeon, Disney, and 4Kids Entertainment. Currently animation supervisor at the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, he lives in New York, NY.
My take on the book:
Move over Bugs Bunny. 2011 brings on the Year of the Rabbit, and Oliver Chin adds another adventurous Tale from the Chinese Zodiac to his collection, The Year of the Rabbit. This tale introduces Rosie the Rabbit, who is born with super long ears, which brings her both misfortune and fortune. As luck would have it, a boy named Jai, whose grandmother would rather eat Rosie for dinner after getting caught raiding her garden, saves Rosie. Later on, it’s Rosie who returns the favor to Jai in this fast-paced animated story. It definitely has a comic book flavor to it. As with some of his other tales, a younger audience might get scared of the ferocious tiger and dragon, so a pre-read is definitely suggested. Chin continues to creatively reveal the virtues of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac through his series.
By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 31, 2010
This year, Chinese New Year falls on February 3, 2011. It is the Year of the Rabbit—the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The rabbit represents hope, and it is widely shared that “People born under the sign of the rabbit are gentle, sensitive, modest, and merciful and have strong memory. They like to communicate with others in a humorous manner. They cannot bear dull life, so they are good at creating romantic or interesting spice…”
The picture books listed below, offer solid introductions into the Chinese New Year and are then followed by some good-old bunny tales to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit.
by Grace Lin
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 34 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (January 8, 2008)
Publisher’s synopsis: This exuberant story follows a Chinese American family as they prepare for the Lunar New Year. Each member of the family lends a hand as they sweep out the dust of the old year, hang decorations, and make dumplings. Then it’s time to put on new clothes and celebrate with family and friends. There will be fireworks and lion dancers, shining lanterns, and a great, long dragon parade to help bring in the Lunar New Year. And the dragon parade in our book is extra long–on a surprise fold-out page at the end of the story. Grace Lin’s artwork is a bright and gloriously patterned celebration in itself! And her story is tailor-made for reading aloud.
Add this book to your collection: Bringing in the New Year
by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Author), Lawrence Migdale (Photographer)
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Holiday House (October 1999)
Source: Library
Publisher’s synopsis: A Chinese-American boy’s family observes a cherished tradition.
Add this book to your collection: Celebrating Chinese New Year
Celebrating Chinese New Year: An Activity Book
by Hingman Chan
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Asia for Ki
Add a Comment
By: Laurel Gaylord,
on 1/25/2011
Beautiful!
Lovely!