Assembly: Chinese New Year 24.1.17
In today’s assembly we talked about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated across the world.
This year, Chinese New Year’s Day is on 28th January, and is the beginning of the Year of the Rooster. There are some interesting things about those sentences. Firstly, in the West we celebrate New Year on 1 January and it is the same every year. Secondly, we don’t name our New Year after an animal! The traditional Chinese calendar is calculated using the moon – it’s called a lunar calendar – and this means that its festivals and holidays fall on different days each year.
Each year is named after one of twelve animals. They are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. They are always in that order, so in 12 years’ time it will be the Year of the Sheep again. Today we watched one version of the traditional story of the New Year Race which gives an explanation of how the Chinese years came to be in this order.
Children have been asked to go home and find out which animal was in the zodiac when they were born. If they can tell Mrs Phillips, Mr Stanley or their class teacher tomorrow they will earn a sticker for their card.
Happy researching and 新年快乐 (Happy New Year!)
Mrs Phillips
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