HNRH celebrates Chinese New Year

Kennetcook- It is officially the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac, and a dragon made a special appearance at the monthly assembly at Hants North Rural High following a presentation about the Chinese New Year.
Teacher Mark Hingley gave a brief slide show presentation about the Chinese New Year and explained that this is the Year of the Dragon. He told the assembled students he had created the slides because his daughter was born in China, and he wanted to share this rich culture with her. He has presented the slides to a few other schools including his daughters Grade two class in Truro. He says he is no expert but he does know a bit about it.
He explained that the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival starts on the New Moon and ends on the Full Moon 15 days later. This year it began on January 23. He described the superstitions associated with the New Year, such as cleaning the house before New Years to clean out all the bad luck and no sweeping on New Year’s Day in case you sweep out good luck. You should not use sharp objects such as scissors or a sharp knife in case you cut or divided the good luck. You should also avoid wearing white which is a symbol of mourning in China.
To prepare for New Years you should cut your hair, and buy new clothes so bad luck can’t find you. Red is a great colour to scare off bad luck. On the first feast of the holiday all the family gathers and the children stay up late, apparently the later the children stay up, the longer the parents life will be. On New Year’s Eve all the children receive lucky money envelopes called Lai-See. They represent luck and wealth and children continue to receive these from visiting adults.
Over the 15 day period there are various celebrations and Hingley gave a few of the highlights. He says similar to ours, family get together and there are fireworks in the evening. On day seven it is the Birthday of all people. At one point individual birthdays were not celebrated in China but everyone celebrated together on one day. On day 14 it is the preparation of the Lantern Festival, where the whole family stays up to watch the beautiful parade of lanterns.
Day 15, the Lantern festival is steeped in legend. Legend has it that the Jade Emperor in Heaven was angry with the Chinese villagers in a certain town that he vowed to destroy it in a storm of fire. But a good fairy heard of it and warned the villagers to light their many lanterns on that night. They did as instructed and it looked as if the town was already o fire and it was saved. This is celebrated today with lanterns and dragon and lion dances as well as fireworks.
Following the presentation, Hingley shared the story of how the dragon that was about to visit came to be. He says one of his former student and close friend Shayna Piercy and her mother Lila had made this dragon costume, shortly after young Mikayla came to Canada.
The dragon dance is a big part of Chinese New Year, the dragon and all the noises with it are said to scare away bad luck. In the mouth of the dragon is typically a ground ball to symbolize a pearl of wisdom, which the dragon wants to eat because it wants to gain as much knowledge possible. The other symbolism of the dragon is to scare away the people’s spirits that would come down from the mountain into the village.
The Dragon was brought into the gym under the power of tiny feet from students in the elementary and under the direction of Bernadette Hingley. Several of the students were dressed in silk shirts with oriental designs and made much noise with shakers and drums.
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