Every
year just prior to the Chinese New Year, Ridgecrest Elementary
paraeducator Agnes Ling Caras teaches the school’s first graders about
the annual celebration by sharing artifacts, customs, and memories from
her childhood in China.
The
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is celebrated on
the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar year. Celebrations continue
for 15 days and end “when you see the full moon,” Caras said.
This year, the Chinese New Year begins on Friday, January 31.
Caras,
who is a paraeducator (teaching assistant) in the Ridgecrest Elementary
Support Center, explained to students that it is traditional to
thoroughly clean house on the days immediately before the Chinese New
Year celebration begins.
She shared a duster made from a yak tail, which was passed around the circle of students eager to touch its soft hair.
The
holiday is focused on family and new beginnings, she said, and doorways
are decorated with red paper cutouts featuring “couplets” (messages of
good fortune and happiness). Caras shared two red paper cutouts with the
phrase “Wishing you good luck” written in black Chinese characters.
Caras
also shared memories of experiencing the Chinese New Year while a young
girl in China and demonstrated ringing a dragon bell to “wake up” a
colorful paper dragon she created for the classroom presentation.
Each
Chinese New Year is associated with a different animal, she said, with
2014 designated the “Year of the Horse.” Caras lined up paper animals on
a round table at the front of the classroom to explain the 12 animals
represented in different years.
Caras
also demonstrated how to use chopsticks, shared a rice bucket she
brought to America from her homeland, displayed a lion table decoration,
showed a gourd and bamboo wind instrument resembling a flute, and
taught students the Chinese greeting “Ni hao.”
First-grade
teacher Karen Smith thanked Caras for the presentation and told
students how lucky they are to learn about the celebration from someone
“who actually has experienced Chinese New Year all of her life.”
Smith
planned to follow up the presentation by reading the class books from
the school library about the Chinese New Year, showing educational
videos of families in China preparing for the New Year, and having
students make a paper dragon as part of an art lesson.