Chinese New Year Celebration (by William)

I celebrate Chinese New Year because my parents are Chinese American.  Chinese New Year goes by the lunar calendar.  It is called “Nian” in Chinese. 

In the south part of China, Nian was a monster who lived near a village on a mountain.  In wintertime, food was scarece on the mountain, so Nian roamed the village eating pets and farm animals.  People wanted to stop him.  They wore red clothes because Nian was afraid of red.  Villagers put sticky Nian cakes outside so when Nian ate them, his paws and mouth were stuck together.  People also blasted fireworks and firecrackers making him loose his coat of feathers.  Eventually Nian died. In the north part of China, the emperor decided to make dumplings for everyone.  He invited everyone over to the palace to eat.  This became known as Nian, or Chinese New Year. 

In China, cities have parades and dragon dances for celebration.  People give red envelopes to their children.  Red envelopes contain money for good luck and good fortune.

My family and I went to storytelling about the Monkey King at the Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel.  From my own knowledge, he and his monkey soldiers fought some soldiers from Heaven because the Heavenly God was upset that the Monkey King stole things from heaven.  The story teller also taught us Chinese characters.  It was very fun!

Storyteller

Street party

We didn’t just hear stories, we also saw a performance a few days afterwards.  My favorite acrobat performance was the Monkey King.

 The Monkey King

 Performers for the New Year Celebration

The Monkey King and me

Chinese people have special foods when celebrating the New Year.  The special foods are sticky Nian cake, turnip cake, and family reunion dinner with many dishes.

I am very proud to be a Chinese American.  Maybe one day you can write an article about holidays your family celebrates too.