[Cartoon by Chen Chunming via China Media Project]
We are already on Day 5 of the Year of the Dragon, but it is not too late to celebrate. Lunar New Year is a two-week celebration, from the first new moon of the lunar calendar to the first full moon. If you are lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, there are lots of fun events coming up in the next few weeks.
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I am not a big fan of Chinese children’s music. Yet over the past seven years I have spent innumerable hours listening to it, in all it’s synthesized, saccharine sweetness, and have learned to tune it out to such a degree that after I drop my children off at school, I occasionally leave the CD playing because I no longer hear it. Nevertheless, early on, I bought and downloaded as many Chinese songs as I could, as I was (and still am) convinced that music is one of the surest and fastest ways for children to learn language. Now that my two children are comfortably fluent in Mandarin, I have tried to wean them off the CDs, which has worked without effort for my seven-year-old but not so well for my three-year-old.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the new Little Dragon Tales, Chinese Songs for Children 
I wrote an essay for InCulture Parent about our efforts to keep our children’s Chinese identity alive when their father cannot travel home. Please read it here. And for those who haven’t read it before, InCulture Parent is a fabulous resource for anyone raising a multicultural family (or anyone interested in the world outside the U.S.).
Tonight is Lantern Festival (元宵节), and we should all be strolling the streets with our lanterns in hand, gazing at the full moon, and watching fireworks light up the sky. Here we did indulge in sweet, sticky, gooey, delicious yuanxiao (not homemade), and with that, Chinese New Year 2011 is over.
[photo by A God's Child on flickr]
The Oakland Museum Lunar New Year celebration is a feast of music, dance, food, stories and crafts from around Asia. The mochi pounding is always a highlight. See scenes from our visit today below, and I hope everyone else’s celebrations for the Year of the Rabbit have been as joyful and festive.
The Year of the Rabbit is now upon us. My kids went off to school in their new outfits this morning, and I did manage to make noodles last night to ensure our long lives, but I did not clean the house from top to bottom nor give my kids haircuts, as custom mandates. I hope this does not bode ill for the Rabbit Year, which by all accounts is supposed to be placid and peaceful, just what we all need.
InCulture Parent has posted several fun craft projects for the Lunar New Year. My daughter came home from her Chinese daycare with a thumbprint plum blossom painting, and it is my favorite art project either of my children has done in four years of school. Simple and lovely and befitting the holiday. ICP also posted a recipe I put together for yuanxiao, a sweet treat for the holiday which is enjoyed all year around in our house (usually not made by hand, however).
While looking over our selection of Chinese New Year themed books, I realized that several were written by local authors here in the Bay Area. A new addition my kids got this year from friends is Year of the Rabbit, the latest in the series of zodiac-themed books by Oliver Chin. It presents a humorous and simple introduction to the animals of the zodiac, clearly aimed at children who did not grow up with the Chinese tradition.
A couple of years ago when I came across The Cable Car and the Dragon, I thought the book must have been written with my son in mind. Cable cars and dragon dances in one book! Do all five-year-olds feel so passionately about those two things? It’s a wonderful story about San Francisco, an escapee dragon, and a cable car come to life, which my son adores.
For those who are interested, Oliver Chin will be reading at several New Year events in the area. In the meantime, my son’s Chinese immersion school has the day off tomorrow, so we are going skiing (and bringing our hotpot with us).
Happy New Year! 兔年大吉！
[Image courtesy of OnTask]
If you live in the Bay Area and are looking for fun things to do for Chinese New Year, here is my rundown via Bay Area Mama.
Childbook also has a list of events throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Enjoy and Happy Year of the Rabbit!
I don’t call them resolutions and I don’t make any promises. But I do have goals for this new year, which include:
- Regular exercise
- Eat well
- Take my vitamins
- Make time to read
- Resuscitate this website
Stay tuned. And Happy 2011 to all!
This week marks Duanwu Jie, or Dragon Boat Festival, the most poetic of the Chinese holidays (and my favorite). In honor of it, here are step-by-step instructions (courtesy of CNN) for making the traditional rice dumplings that are eaten on this day.
For more about the history and meaning of Duanwu Jie, see my post from last year.
[This will be cross-posted at Today's Mama]
Ever since he saw his first lion dance, my son has been obsessed, regularly using a blanket over his head and an impromptu drum to dance around our living room, pawing the ground, jumping up, and performing acrobatic feats just like the real thing. This year he had a chance to be part of a real lion dance at his school which was one of the most exciting moments in his five-year-old life. Outside of the celebratory two week Lunar New Year period, lion dances are usually few and far between, but this weekend in San Francisco is a chance to again partake in the fun. The Asian Heritage Festival, Saturday from 11-6 outside the Civic Center, will kick off with a Lion Dance troup, and will also feature a variety of performers, vendors, and more. Find more information here and see their ad below:
