Sunday, February 10, 2013

Preserving Her Culture

It is important to us that to we preserve Nora's culture as we raise her here as a Chinese-American.  One of the most festive and rich cultural holidays is the Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, a fifteen day celebration in China.  Today begins the year of the snake so this weekend we tried to do a few things to celebrate the holiday.  As Nora gets older, we will try to incorporate more tradition into this holiday.
2013 - Year of the Snake
Jack is a Snake!!!

The children all wore red today for "good luck".

We gave chocolate coins to friends and family in red envelopes.  It is traditional for parents and grandparents to give children money in red envelopes on the eve of the New Year.  The boys will also be taking candy filled "firecrackers" to their friends at school tomorrow.

Okay, I had really good intentions of putting together a traditional Chinese meal, but that didn't happen.  What did happen was dipping fortune cookies (totally American culture and not traditional Chinese) in sparkly red sprinkles (added a little orange extract as there is a small orange-type citrus fruit tree that is very customary decoration during the New Year).

We made Chinese lanterns (and will try to actually release a lantern sometime this week or next weekend).

We have been reading some fun books about the New Year.

And, the reason we celebrate - our little Chinese firecracker!

5 comments:

Dana said...

Wow - you did WAY better than I did! Ha! Well done - happy Chinese New Year!

Elizabeth said...

Adorable!

Nikki said...

Lovin' that little Chinese firecracker!

suzie said...

Love Noras smile. Where did you get the Chinese coins and red envelopes? We are hoping to celebrate this weekend.

Amy said...

I Love it! Looks like a great celebration even without a traditional meal. I like all of the little touches and that is what will be remembered anyway.

What a goofy grin! :) Miss Nora is changing SO much!