Year of the Snake

This year, the Chinese New Year falls on February 10 and 2013 is the year of the Snake!

 

by Minette Riordan

Do your children ever ask why the Chinese don’t celebrate the New Year at the same time we do? I love the opportunity to teach my children about how and why other cultures celebrate different traditions and the Chinese New Year is always a popular one with children. Who doesn’t love colorful costumes and amazing dancing dragons?

What your children may not know, is that the date of the Chinese New Year changes every year, according the lunar calendar and that the celebrations can last from two weeks to a month. This is considered one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture. Like so many of our own traditions, celebrations were based on agriculture. Laura Young, editor for Kaboose.com, writes “Originally the celebrations lasted for lengthy amounts of time because China was a very agriculture-based country so farmers took the whole month off to rest since crops couldn’t be planted during the winter. Nowadays most families celebrate the New Year for about two week’s time, says Ng, starting on the first day of the new year and end on the 15^th. “