Webquest: Chinese New Year
Look for the answers to the following questions and share your answers with your partner.
Activity 1: Introduction
What do you know about Chinese New Year? See how many of these questions you can answer, then check your answers using the following weblink:
- By what other name is Chinese New Year known?
- When is it celebrated?
- When is the lantern festival?
- Why do people clean their house before the start of New Year?
- What do the colours red and gold represent?
- Why do children like to get red envelopes?
- In the lion dance, why does the lion have a mirror on its head?
- What will you often find painted on the new year lanterns?
Activity 2: Traditional food
Food is always important for festivals and celebrations – and for Chinese New Year it is no different. Find the answers to these questions using the following weblink:
1. What is nian gao and where do people eat it?
2. In China, different types of food are often associated with something important. Match these foods with what they represent:
3. Why mustn’t you cut the noodles?
4. Why don’t Chinese people eat tofu for New Year?
Activity 3: Customs and traditions
Decide whether the following customs and traditions (1–4) and superstitions (5–8) related to Chinese New Year are true (T) or false (F). Then, check your answers using the web pages below:
1. People send each other poems written on red paper.
2. It is considered very lucky for a flower to bloom in someone’s home on New Year’s Day.
3. Flowers are a symbol of fertility.
4. When visiting friends and family for Chinese New Year, you should take a bag of oranges and tangerines as a gift.
Some Chinese people believe that …
5. … rubbish must not be taken out of the front door as the family’s good luck may be lost.
6. … if you cry on New Year’s day, you will be crying for the next month.
7. … the last person you meet and last words you hear on New Year’s day are significant to your fortunes for the whole year.
8. … it is lucky to hear birdsong.
What other superstitions and traditions about Chinese New Year can you find? Are there any that are similar to those in your culture? Discuss these with a partner.
Activity 4: The calendar and zodiac signs
Use the website below to answer these questions.
1. Is the Chinese calendar solar or lunar?
2. How many months are there in the Chinese calendar?
3. How does the Chinese calendar count years?
4. What is special about the year 2033?
5. Which zodiac animals are associated with the years 2017 and 2018?
Go to www.topmarks.co.uk/ChineseNewYear/Zodiac to find out what your zodiac animal is and what its characteristics are, then compare with a partner. Do the characteristics match your personality?
Find out more about studying Chinese with Macmillan’s Discover China series.
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