Welcome the Year of the Dragon

In my neck of the woods many of us have just finished celebrating the New Year, but a huge percentage of the world’s population is just getting started.  This year the Chinese New Year falls on January 23 and is the beginning of the Year of the Dragon.  New Year’s day in China is actually the first day of 15 days of celebration devoted to bringing good luck to everyone in the coming year.

In the weeks leading up to the New Year, Chinese people all around the world prepare by cleaning their homes, repaying debts, buying new cloths and getting their hair cut.  The traditional belief holds that a messy home and life will bring the bad luck of past years into the new one and its everyone’s goal to bring good luck to the future.

Many homes decorate by hanging beautiful paper cut designs.  Traditional themes of good luck are the most popular.  Check out these books to learn a few paper cutting skills.

In Chinese culture the year a person is born has much greater significance than the month or day.  Each year in the Chinese zodiac relates to an animal and that animal’s qualities are able to be seen in those who were born that year.  In Chinese communities all over the world people celebrate their birthdays together on the same day.  The seventh day of  the Chinese New Year translates to “the birthday of all humankind.”  So whenever your birthday, you can still celebrate!   Learn all there is to know about the Chinese Zodiac in these books.

No holiday would be complete without traditional foods.  The Chinese New Year revolves around variety of foods associated with good luck.  Many foods associated with New Year celebrations are homophones for words like prosperity, health and fortune.  For that reason oranges, dumplings and a New Year Pudding figure heavily on Chinese tables at this time of year.   Try your hand at making a few traditional chinese dumplings with one of many Asian cookbooks from the library!

So make sure to find time to do a little celebrating for the Chinese New Year, its good luck!

-Brooke, CLP