In the middle of February Mr. Qiang Zhang’s Chinese classes at Logan County High Schooo=l celebrated the New Year—the Chinese New Year—and right on time. Unlike the Gregorian new year observed Jan. 1, the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, officially begins on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The event usually falls between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20 with this year’s celebration beginning Feb. 16.
The calendar is also linked to the Chinese zodiac calendar, which keeps a twelve animal character cycle. This year is the Year of the Dog, which is the second to last animal in the cycle. Tradition stipulates that those born under the Dog are considered to be loyal, honest, and maintain a prudent disposition to others; however, they are sometimes stubborn and struggle with communication.
In China, the Festival is a national holiday; banks, schools and businesses close for the celebration. People dress in traditional red clothing to signify new beginnings and to ward of bad fortune. The Lunar New Year is marked with parades, the iconic red Chinese lanterns, and impressive pyrotechnic displays— the loud bangs believed to scare away the bad spirits.
While not done to the scale of China, the LCHS event is one participants are sure to remember. Mr. Zhang began with a photo opportunity involving the students holding up Chinese characters spelling out “Happy New Year” and a few other student-created banners.
This was followed by each class getting into a circle to discuss their hopes for the new year as well as tell what they were thankful for from the past year.
Students then took part in hongbao, an activity where red envelopes of money are given out— in this case yens-- a practice that combines wishes for good luck with warding off evil spirits. It was then time to share food. As they ate, the class created artistic paper cuttings from red paper, another activity related to luck and happiness.
At the celebration’s conclusion, those involved knew they had done what they could to guarantee good luck and ward off the bad. At the same time, they kicked off the Year of the Dog with a howling good time.
Chinese is offered as a dual-credit foreign language course at Logan County High School. It is made possible in part by the Confucius Institute at Western Kentucky University.