If you’re wondering more about how I grew up celebrating, check out my Celebrating Chinese New Year post that features my family’s traditions. By the way, Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year are the same holiday. These days it’s more common to say Lunar New Year because many Asian countries and groups throughout the world celebrate. It isn’t an exclusive holiday to Chinese culture, but you might see me refer to it as Chinese New Year because I am Chinese American and old habits can be hard to break! Please note that these are Chinese traditions that I grew up with as a Chinese American. Other Asian cultures celebrate Lunar New Year with different traditions.
Preparing to Celebrate Lunar New Year with Kids
This year is the Year of the Dragon, a particularly important year because of the significance of the dragon to Chinese culture. The dragon characterizes ambition, dominance, success, and is the mightiest of all 12 of the creatures that comprise the Chinese Zodiac. Here are 5 things you can do before the new year as you prepare to celebrate Lunar New Year with kids.
Learn the Story of the Chinese Zodiac and Your Zodiac Sign
Each year is represented by one of 12 animals and it’s fun to print the story of the Chinese Zodiac and learn your Zodiac sign and traits associated with it.
Use this Chinese Zodiac Sign Calculator to figure out which animals you are. I like the calculator because it considers the date of your birth to figure out which animal you are. Parents: It’s also fun to scroll down to use the Chinese Zodiac Compatibility Calculator to know details about you and your partner’s horoscope, personality, love compatibility, etc.
This is important because the start of Lunar New Year differs each year according to the lunar calendar. The holiday always falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Many calendars like those you see on placemats at Chinese restaurants follow the western calendar that begins on January 1 so if you have a January or February birthday, you may not be the zodiac animal you thought you were!
Clean Together
In anticipation of a new year, one way to celebrate Lunar New Year with kids is to clean together! Cleaning the house before the new year sweeps out the bad luck from the previous year. It’s customary to avoid cleaning for the first week to avoid sweeping or washing away the good luck that the New Year brings. If it’s hard to not shower, sweep, take out the trash, do laundry, dust, vacuum, etc. for a whole week, at least avoid doing as many of these things as you can on the first day of the new year.
Decorate Your Home
After cleaning, it’s the perfect time to decorate! Traditionally homes are decorated in red and gold/yellow. Red is the luckiest color in Chinese culture because it symbolizes happiness, passion, and good luck. Gold (or yellow) represents wealth, abundance, and fortune. Easy ways you can decorate include:
- Covering your table with a red tablecloth and using yellow napkins
- Buying red and yellow flowers. I found some gorgeous red and yellow tulips this morning while shopping at Trader Joe’s!
- Making red paper lanterns. I love this super simple Paper Lantern Craft from ChildhoodMagic.com that uses minimal materials and is really easy to do with young kids thanks to a template!
Prepare a Tray of Togetherness
Preparing a Tray of Togetherness (or chuen hap) can be a fun way to celebrate Lunar New Year with kids. I always remember the Tray of Togetherness in my grandparents’ house. The square lacquer box featured mother of pearl and when you opened the lid at the start of Chinese New Year, it revealed a glass lid that covered different compartments.
The eight compartments (eight is a lucky number!) were filled with candied sweets of ginger, winter melon, lotus seeds, sliced taro root, crunchy water chestnuts, coconut, and pistachios. Candied lotus seed symbolize the bearing of children, winter melon candy represents having a good year from start to finish, and savory snacks like are associated with prosperity.
Last year I found an antique wooden Tray of Togetherness on eBay and although it isn’t as beautiful as my grandmother’s, the sentiment behind it is the same. I fill ours with my favorite Chinese New Year sweets like candied winter melon, coconut, candied ginger, hard candies, and chocolate. To make your own Tray of Togetherness, gather eight dishes and fill them with your family’s favorite sweet treats.
Master Lunar New Year Greetings
Thanks to The Woks of Life, you can learn common Chinese New Year greetings and useful phrases to spread that new year prosperity around! They feature 23 greetings in both Mandarin and Cantonese that you can learn to celebrate Lunar New Year with your kids. Beginning readers will enjoy making a mini book of words associated with Chinese New Year.
Celebrate Lunar New Year with Kids: Things to Do the First Day
You’ve cleaned your house, decorated, and learned how wish someone a happy new year so now it’s time to celebrate! Here are 5 ways to ensure that you have an auspicious year filled with health, wealth, and happiness!
Exchange Red Envelopes
When I lived at home with my parents, I looked forward to waking up and saying “Gung Hay Fat Choy” (Happy New Year in Chinese) to each of my parents on the morning of the new year. In turn, each parent would hand me a red li see filled with lucky money that I’d sneak off and open privately because it’s not polite to open in front of the giver.
Later that evening when my grandparents held their traditional Chinese New Year banquet, my brother and I enjoyed wishing relatives Gung Hay Fat Choy in exchange for li see. Since it’s customary for married couples to give li see to those who are unmarried, my brother and I always had a stack of li see envelopes filled with money at the end of the night!
Li see envelopes can be purchased from Asian markets this time of year or you can also make or print your own. Fill them with lucky money, new crispy bills are the best! Most relatives gave us $1 in each envelope, but my parents and grandparents gave us more. Li see filled with $2 bills were always a fun rare treat!
Wear New Clothes
Wearing new clothes symbolize a fresh start for the new year but don’t feel like you need to run out and buy something new! You can also wear red which represents luck and positivity. Just avoid black and white which are associated with grief and mourning.
Enjoy a Traditional Chinese Meal
When you go out to your favorite Chinese restaurant, add dumplings, noodles, and fish to your order. Dumplings look like money pouches so eating them represents fortune and prosperity in the coming year. Noodles, eaten for long life, are traditionally eaten at the start of the year but also on birthdays. Whole fish, served with the head and tail, symbolizes a good beginning and end to the year but if you want to celebrate Lunar New Year with kids and this makes you (and them squeamish), you can order a dish with fish instead of a whole fish. Avoid eating anything white (including tofu, white rice, eggs, etc.) because white symbolizes death.
If you’re looking to cook traditional Chinese New Year foods, visit Woks of Life for Chinese New Year Recipes. They also are also the authors of my favorite Chinese cookbook and best recipe for cha siu bao (barbecue pork buns)!
Give a Neighbor Oranges
Bringing oranges or tangerines to relatives at the start of the new year was always a tradition growing up. The orange color of oranges and tangerines signify gold and prosperity for the new year so when you gift someone oranges and they gift some back, you’re wishing each other wealth and good fortune in the coming year. It seems silly to give oranges and then take someone else’s home but the symbolism is important.
Continue the Celebration
Lunar New Year is celebrated for days in Asian countries. To learn more about common traditions associated with Lunar New Year, click over to the South China Morning Post’s calendar featuring the different celebrations that happen over 16 days in Mainland China. Click over to All You Need to Know About Dragons and scroll down to see this calendar. Hovering over each day will provide you with more information about the celebration associated on the day.
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