Ping Ting led our Collective Worship today and she taught us all about how Chinese New Year is celebrated.
She began by sharing the story of Nian, who was a monster who lived in the mountains in China long ago. Once a year, he would travel down to the village and eat everything in sight, including people! One year, he came down to the village and got scared by the crackling fire and the people, who wear wearing red clothes. He ran back to the mountains and then, every new year, the Chinese people lit bonfires and fireworks and wore red clothes to fend off Nian. They now uphold this tradition as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Ping Ting also told us that this year is the year of the rat. We all tried to say rat in Chinese.
Then, we learnt about what else some Chinese people do, which includes eating a special meal with dumplings and giving children red envelopes containing money, for good luck.
Ping Ting told us about the lion and dragon dance which takes place this year on 26th January in Hurst Street, Birmingham (B5 4TD) at 11:30. She said that we were all welcome to go along and enjoy the celebrations.
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