One of Chinese New Year Traditions – Paste paper-cuts to windows (贴窗花) ![]() Cong Xia Li, the Language Lead for Mandarin Chinese and the Language Lead for Russian in the Department of Languages and Cultures. This year, to acknowledge Chinese New Year, we have some contributions from staff across the University who have kindly shared decorations they have made and why Lunar New Year is important to them.Ī second post will be coming at this week which will announce the upcoming Lunar New Year festival organised by Dr. The previous Lunar New Year post contains information on where it is celebrated across Asia as a national holiday and the significance of the decorations, their colours and common characters you may see embellishing them, including Paper Cutting Arts, Lanterns, and the Red Packets I mentioned. It was many years ago, but that memory has stayed with me all this time and I cherish it as a moment of sharing – not only symbols of good fortune, but of her sharing that part of her culture with me. As I learned later, the act itself of passing on these packets to another person is symbolic of passing on good fortune for the years ahead. ![]() Lunar New Year, though, is not just about giving money for the sake of giving money. I remember feeling surprised and taken aback at receiving money and thanked her and her family. So, I did and out slid a cool, gold shiny pound coin (yes, it was back when the pound coins were just gold!) which landed in my palm. I didn’t know what it was because it was the first time I encountered it, but I was told to open it and tip the paper pouch slightly. As I looked over it, I saw a rich, gold-coloured character on the front of it. Her mother placed a red paper pouch in her hands and, in turn, she placed it in my hands. I have a vivid memory of being in primary school and one of my friends approaching me. My associations with Chinese New Year are that of a sense of kindness and generosity that have stayed with me since childhood. Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit, ( 兔 – tou / tù). Lunar New Year / 農曆新年 (nung lik san nin / nóng lì xīn nián) was on Sunday 22 January this year. (As last year, this post includes Chinese traditional characters and phrases with Cantonese 粵 拼 jyutping and Mandarin 拼音 pinyin pronunciations respectively). Tagged Chinese New Year, Events, Lunar New Year, Lunar New Year Annual Festival, What's On, Year of the Rabbit | Leave a comment | Lunar New Year 2023 Message from the Vice Chancellor Posted in celebrations, culture, Lunar New Year | There will be lots of prizes to be won! I look forward to seeing you then. There will be lots of interactive activities like chopstick challenges, Chinese music and art, solving riddles, as well as aforementioned paper cutting, calligraphy, and mahjong. This year, the annual Chinese New Year celebration is scheduled for 8 Feb 13:00 – 16:00 in the Palmer building. The philosophy behind the game is, using the American actress Julia Robert’s words, “to create orders out of randomly drawn tiles”. Through playing Mahjong, one can understand the relationship between chance and necessity. Mahjong, a strategy-based tile game among four players, was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. ![]() It even has a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage designation due to its long-standing 1500 years of practice. 剪纸 (paper-cutting) is a folk art that appeared in the Han dynasty in the 4th century AD, originating from cutting patterns for rich Chinese embroideries. I was delighted to see so many students and staff alike take part in the interactive activities such as 剪纸 (paper cutting), 书法(calligraphy), and Mahjong, which all have deep roots in Chinese culture and philosophy. Having taught Chinese at the University of Reading for over 15 years, I have been keen to run the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities to allow everyone on campus to experience the rich culture and traditions involved. Cong Xia Li, who is organising the festival this year and images from previous Lunar New Year celebrations: This festival is open to all and we hope to see you there!īelow are some words from Dr. The University of Reading will host a Lunar New Year festival on 8 February 2023.
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