It's Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year's Eve (Spring Festival)! China is a big agricultural country. Most of the people are farmers. Tomorrow is the Chinese Agriculture calendar New Year's Day. Around this time every year the Chinese have many celebrations. Chinese people usually celebrate by eating dumplings stuffed with meat, vegetables, or tofu. Children get money from their parents for good luck. During this time most people try their best to wear red clothes.
   Spring is coming, so around the doors people hang Spring Festival scrolls of poetry. The poem is two sentences about the last year, and a wish about the coming year. Every family chooses a different poem. The word for blessing (fu) is hung upside down on the door, to show blessings and good fortune are coming.
   The origin of the Spring Festival is a story about a bad destructive monster that destroyed villages. Fireworks, firecrackers and the sounds of people making dumplings (pounding, chopping), scare the monster away.
   This is the year of the horse. Last year was the year of the snake. There are 12 animals in the small zodiac cycle.
We wish our Chinese friends a Happy New Year!
This post was brought to you by the Reading/Writing 4 class.