Chinese New Year—or Spring Festival—is China’s most important holiday. We spend a good amount of time studying the traditions of this holiday in our middle school Chinese classes. This year, the Chinese New Year falls on Friday, February 16. This is the Year of the Dog.
Seventh-graders performed a Dragon Dance at today’s Middle School assembly. (Lion Dances are also performed frequently at Spring Festival celebrations.) Eighth-graders sang “Gongxi Gongxi,” a popular song among Chinese children at the New Year. The title of the song literally means “congratulations,” but the lyrics are really about saying goodbye to winter and welcoming spring and the new year.