Celebrating Lunar New Year

Third Graders spent the morning celebrating Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year is tied to the lunar calendar which, unlike the solar calendar, is based on the monthly cycles of the moon's phases. Many cultures follow the lunar calendar instead of the solar calendar and celebrate the lunar year with a variety of traditions. Third Grade teacher, Ms. Williams, shared some traditions from her home and even brought in a special candy, White Rabbits!

Each year in the Chinese lunar calendar is represented by one of the 12 zodiac animals. To celebrate the year of the tiger, Advent Art Teacher, Ms. Tara, helped students create different projects connected to the zodiac. Students made paper cutouts of the tiger, folded tiger origami, and made decorative lanterns.

Ms. Hennick led the students in folding red envelopes, typically used to share lucky money (the class stuck White Rabbits in theirs instead). The students were able to write "Happy New Year", in either Vietnamese, Chinese Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean. The importance of bringing different cultures into the classrooms is seen at all grade levels at Advent.