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Lunar Chinese New Year celebrations!
Last week we celebrated Lunar Chinese New Year 2022 at BestStart Epsom. We all welcome the year of the Tiger on 1st February 2022. This is the most significant day in the Chinese culture.
The children had the opportunity to dress up in Chinese traditional costumes such as cheongsam for girls and samfu for boys. Teachers dressed up in red and looked elegant with their cheongsam. We decorated our room with various Chinese decorations and the children were involved in many art activities. They made lanterns, red packets for tea ceremony and paper fans. We put on Chinese New Year music and the children took their steps showing their Chinese traditional dance with ribbons, fans and scarves. The children created a tiger face with an empty box for our lion dance performance.
It was free and open-ended discovery of using craft items, the textures, shapes, colours, and glitters that were inviting to the children. The most fun part was the lion dance using the tiger head. The children showing their enthusiasm and curiosity and eager to participate in the lion dance. The children had an opportunity to experience and involved in a tea ceremony. They were shown how to serve tea to the teachers which symbolized respect to their elders. In return the children were given lucky red envelopes hand crafted by the children.
The colour red is the traditional symbol of the Chinese New Year. The children had a special lunch eating dumplings. We had two types of dumplings offered to the children. One was chicken and cabbage dumplings and the other one was vegetarian dumplings. We also had Chinese fried rice which was enjoyed by everyone. Celebrating Chinese New Year brings a unique cultural experience to the children in the centre, and everyone had an amazing time. It is our honor to be able to share the unique culture, customarily and traditions with the children and teachers.