Chinese New Year at Greenacres

Students at the Greenacres School celebrated the Chinese New Year with their fourth annual lion parade on February 23, 2010!  As in previous years, the school's main entrances were decorated with long, vertical Chinese scrolls with poems about the coming of spring and blessings for the New Year.  In the lunchroom, several five-foot-long dragon garlands, large red lanterns and colorful firecracker garlands dangled from wire strung across the floor-to-ceiling columns.  Red, yellow and purple Chinese New Year banners were hung over each doorway to wish that all would “come and go in peace”.

To celebrate the year of the tiger (虎; pronounced “hu”) and Lunar Year 4708, Ms. Krisanda's kindergarten class led a lion parade around Greenacres School. The students carried a variety of noisy musical instruments: hand drums, cymbals, maracas and a traditional Chinese chau gong; parent Melissa Chepuru provided Chinese drum and gong accompaniment for the parade.  The loud ruckus of the lion parade (usually with firecrackers) is meant to scare away evil spirits and bad luck, thus ensuring a happy, prosperous new year.  Parent Chip Lee operated the lion's head while two students manned its tail.  Some of the students wore traditional Chinese outfits in red and gold—the colors of happiness, abundance and longevity.
 
Throughout the week, Chinese New Year was celebrated in several classrooms:  parents talked about customs in preparing for the New Year and for the Lantern Festival (last day of the 15-day New Year celebration); showed how modern-day Chinese characters evolved from ancient pictographs; staged a riddle-guessing contest with prizes; taught students how to write Chinese characters and make a New Year greeting card; brought in homemade dumplings, clementines and red envelopes for the students.