Kung Hei Fat Choy!
Nine Asian countries celebrate the Lunary New Year with public holidays and variations on the activities you will find described below. About 1/5 of the world's population will be enjoying the festivies, and New Year's Eve is the world's biggest annual migration, with over 200 million people making every effort to get home for a big celebratory dinner with their extended families.
Year of the Monkey
On 8th February 2016 we welcome in a new Chinese New Year, the Year of the Monkey! For lots of new colouring pages, puzzles, worksheets and other printables, explore here:
Year of the Monkey Lots NEW!
What Is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year is the most important of the Chinese holidays, and is a time of feasting with the family, celebration, fireworks and gift-giving. It is a 15-day holiday, beginning on the first day of a new moon and ending with the full moon on the day of the Lantern Festival.The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar year, so the date of Chinese New Year changes every year. The Chinese calendar follows a 12-year pattern with each year named after an animal. There are various stories which explain this. The simplest is that Buddha (or the Jade Emperor) invited all of the animals to join him for a New Year celebration, but only 12 animals turned up. To reward the animals that did come, Buddha named a year after each of them in the order that they arrived, starting with the Rat, followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. (Find another version of the story to print, below)
Depending on the year you are born, you are believed to have the various character traits of that year's animal.
Etiketler Cartoons
