News Cultural Celebration Assembly: Lunar New Year 13.02.2025

This week, Year 11 students Emily, Sophie, Chen, Sophia and Emily led a special assembly on the Lunar New Year. Celebrated across China and many other East and Southeast Asian countries, the festival lasts for 15 days and ushers in the new year according to the Lunar calendar.

The festival, which began on 29 January and finished on 12 February, is a time to let go of the past year and welcome luck, wealth, and prosperity. Our Year 11 students taught the audience a common greeting during this time, Gōngxǐ fācái (恭喜发财), which translates to ‘congratulations on getting rich’ but more generally means ‘may you be happy and prosperous’.

The assembly also explored the myths and traditions behind the festival. The Year 11 students told their classmates about a popular legend of Nian, a mythical beast that terrorised villages until a wise old man discovered it feared loud noises and the colour red. This is why firecrackers, red decorations, and fireworks play such a big role in the celebrations today.

They explained that Chinese New Year is also about family reunions, with traditions like giving red envelopes filled with money and exchanging oranges as symbols of prosperity. Food plays a big role in the celebrations, with dishes like tang yuan (glutinous rice balls symbolising togetherness), dumplings (representing wealth), nian gao (sticky rice cake symbolising progress), and fish (symbolising abundance).

The group shared their own personal traditions, including reunion dinners with yu sheng, a special salad tossed high in the air to bring good fortune. Others spoke about visiting relatives, playing traditional games like mahjong, and even paying respects to ancestors. As the assembly drew to a close, there was time for a quick quiz round on what students had learnt from the assembly, with fortune cookies handed out as a prize for correct answers.

The assembly was a wonderful way to learn about the significance of Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated across different cultures. Thank you to Emily, Sophie, Chen, Sophia and Emily for such an informative assembly.