Kids and Teen Blog
Celebrate Chinese New Year
by monique t
News / January 26, 2006
It's the year 4704, and time to welcome the Year of the Dog!
Chinese New Year is celebrated in cities around the world. This year celebrations occur during the week before and after January 29.
Two major centres, Vancouver and Toronto, have widely publicized parades and events that are appropriate for kids.
Visit the Travel With Kids website for details or see below:
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver has a large Chinese community, and the Spring Parade is held annually in Chinatown on the first Sunday of the Lunar New Year, with entertainment and lion dance. Call the Vancouver Touristinfo Centre, 604-683-2000, or check HelloBC. Nearby are activities at the beautiful (admission-by-donation) classical Gardens: music, fortune telling, craft demonstrations, etc.
Toronto Lunar New Year
Toronto celebrates "The Largest Lunar New Year Festival in Canada", January 27 to January 29, 2006, at Exhibition Place, with market fair, arts and crafts bazaar, Asian food court,� Lunar New Year cooking stage, flower market, lanterns exhibit,� games; and entertainment such as lion dance, opera, magic shows.
If you'd rather stay in, check out Ed Young's visual poem about China, Beyond the Great Mountains.
Ed Young is a Caldecott Award winner and his lyrical masterpiece is a wonderful introduction for children to the grace, depth and majesty of the Orient. Each page features gorgeous paper-collage illustrations, highlighted with Chinese characters that are explained at the back.
Interested in the Chinese zodiac?
The legend of the Chinese zodiac is told in David Bouchard's picture book, The Great Race. Bouchard's text is accompanied by the paintings of Chinese-Canadian artist Zhong-Yang Huang. The images and text set in motion the timeless contest that pits creatures such as the ox, rat, horse and dragon against one another to see who will reach the Jade City first. But as the story unfolds, it becomes poignantly clear that there are more important things than being the fastest or the craftiest.
�Remember, it is not who won that matters. It is the order in which they placed that is most important. Listen carefully so that you come to understand why each animal placed where it did.� �excerpt