Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is the most important celebration observed in China, with cultural and historic significance. The festival signals the beginning of spring, and the start of a new year according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
Lunar New Year, also regionally known as the Chinese New Year, is one of the world’s most prominent and celebrated festival. It is an important annual event for many countries in Asia and this festival is celebrated globally. It is a time of celebration, dancing dragons, eating special foods, cleaning and decorating the house and streets with Chinese lanterns, giving monetary gifts, fireworks, and getting ready for the coming year. It’s a very colourful and joyous event. This year the festival starts on 12th February, 2021. This year ushers in the Year of the Ox, one of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs often associated with hard work, intelligence, humbleness, and reliability. Malaysia is a melting pot of cultures.
Here at ML Kingsley International School, our pre-schoolers in primary and reception levels get to experience a multitude of festive celebrations including Chinese New Year (CNY), Hari Raya and Deepavali. In celebration of CNY, our pre-schoolers had the opportunity to interact with the teachers and administrative staff of ML KIS. They were presented with several Ang pow packets each from the personnel of ML KIS. Ang pows are red envelopes filled with money. They are usually given out by elders and married couples as gifts to the young and unmarried during CNY celebrations. The red colour of the envelope signifies good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits, with illustrations that typically bestow blessings and good wishes of longevity, prosperity, and good health to the recipient.
In Malaysia, the practice has been assimilated into the culture of other ethnicities as well. For example, money has been known to be distributed in the form of green packets modelled after the ang pow during the Malay festival – Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, while purple or yellow packets are handed out during the Deepavali celebrations.
For this exciting activity, the teachers coaxed our students to wear bright coloured clothes. It is believed that wearing new clothes from head to toe symbolizes a new start and fresh hopes for the New Year. The Chinese community believes that New Year’s Day sets the tone for the rest of the year, so everyone tries to dress well. They usually wear red or other brightly-coloured clothes on New Year’s Day, to go with the festive and upbeat mood. Red colour symbolises good luck and believed to scare away spirits of bad fortune.
For this exciting activity, the teachers coaxed our students to wear bright coloured clothes. It is believed that wearing new clothes from head to toe symbolizes a new start and fresh hopes for the New Year. The Chinese community believes that New Year’s Day sets the tone for the rest of the year, so everyone tries to dress well. They usually wear red or other brightly-coloured clothes on New Year’s Day, to go with the festive and upbeat mood. Red colour symbolises good luck and believed to scare away spirits of bad fortune.
This activity helped Kingsley’s pre-schoolers to understand the Chinese culture, concept of tradition and beliefs practised during CNY celebrations.
