M@Dkid's Gazette Vol. 19 - Chinese New Years
Updated: Jun 26, 2022
INTRODUCTION
Chinese New Years’ is the most important holiday in China. The dates are always changing when we are going to celebrate it. This year, it’s on February 12, 2021. This is a day to welcome in the New Year. Only in the U.S, we have one day Chinese New Year Celebrations. In China, the first day is to feast with family. After the feast, there are 15 more days to celebrate. A popular thing to do on Chinese New Year is Dragon Dances and Lion dances.
HISTORY
Chinese New Year has been celebrated for 3,500 years now! It’s been around for so long, that it’s not stated when it was first created! Many people believe that the Chinese New Year was created in the Shang Dynasty. People held ceremonies in honor of gods and ancestors at the beginning of each year. It is very popular in China, but in the U.S, we don’t celebrate as much. The myth of why we have red envelopes is because a demon named Sui would go around on New Years’ Eve night and terrorized children. He only didn’t come if you have a parent with you. One night, a little boy was given 8 coins to play with to keep him up. He soonly drifted asleep with all coins on his pillow. Later when Sui came, he touched one of the coins. The coins all showed a light and that scared Sui. They later found out that red was a lucky color. They put the coins in red packets and called them red envelopes.
WHY ISN’T CHINESE NEW YEAR ON JANUARY 1ST?
Have you ever heard of the Lunar Calendar? It means Moon Calendar. Lunar comes from the word Luna. In Spanish Or Latin, it means moon. The Chinese New Year is based on the Lunar Calendar. This holiday is based on the changes in the moon. Chinese New Years ranges from January 21th - February 20th.
CHINESE NEW YEAR TRADITIONS
On Chinese New Year, we have big feasts, family gatherings, dressing in New Clothes, and celebrations with our family. Traditionally, people in China eat dumplings, spring rolls, sweet rice balls, fish, Noodles, Rice cake, and Good Fortune fruit (see below image for a list of food). Some families will eat different things. Aside from eating, we have big celebrations. We light a firecracker, lion dance, and the dragon dance. Firecrackers, dragon dance, and lion dance supposed to scare away the bad spirits so you can have a spirit-free year. If you get bitten on the head by a dragon, it gives you good luck for the rest of the year. Just like the lion dance, we dress in New clothes to bring in the New Year with a fresh start. Wearing colors like Red, yellow, gold, and pink are most appropriate.
CHINA VS. U.S
There are many differences in the way we celebrate Chinese New Years. In China there are a lot of firecrackers, lion dancing, and dragon dancing throughout the city. Here in the state, there are limited places that have all of the above. The only place I know that would celebrate would be China Town, Temples, and some large gatherings. But occasionally, there would be lion dances in small businesses. As previously stated above, in China, they celebrate Chinese New Years longer than we do.
In commonality, we all have to save up money for the red envelopes because it’s very costly.
REFERENCES
Aunnie’s art review
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hello everyone, I will not be picking out an art. Instead, I will be drawing an art and will be talking about myself as an artist. The art is called “Chinese New Years,” it takes place in the park, on a sunny day.
Ariannie (nickname Aunnie) was born on September 6th, 2012. She’s a 2nd grader going to Monterey highlands school. Aunnie has a sister and a brother. Her favorite color is teal and she is 4 feet. She wanted to be an artist because art is how you can put your feelings into artwork. Drawings and paintings are like a photo where you can express emotions into the art so that is why she likes art. Also, art isn't perfect because it has a unique style, it is different, it has its own flavor and people see art in a different perspective.
ABOUT THE ART
By looking at this art it is exciting since there are people dancing, flying lanterns in the air, colorful trees and firecrackers everywhere. This is not a normal dragon, it has a dragon body with a lion head. The body of a dragon is really long therefore the dragon has 4 people controlling it. It takes a strong and talented group to hold and control the dragon. As you can see there are pink flowers falling from the sky, those are cherry blossoms. It reminds me of the red envelope which I get on Chinese New Year. There are also firecrackers. One is next to the right tree, the other is in the mouth of the dragon and the last one is on the dragon tail. Back to why there is a firecracker in the dragon’s mouth, is because this dragon can blow out fire and scare away the bad energy. There are lanterns in the sky, the normal chinese lanterns hang and they don’t float in the sky, but they do here.
How I feel about this art
When I was making the artwork I was feeling overjoyed, glad and thrilled because I could write about my art in this newsletter. I could draw an art all about Chinese New Year and I did not have a plan of what I wanted to do, I just drew what makes me think about Chinese New Year. I just did what my brain told me to do.
Komodo dragon (not a dragon)
Varanus komodoensis
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone, This week's topic is about the Chinese New Year! Chinese New Year is celebrated on February 12, 2021. I was going to do the dragon, but I won’t know how much it weighs and the taphonomy, so instead, I did komodo dragons.
FACTS ABOUT LUNAR NEW YEAR FOOD
Let's talk about the Lunar New Year. On Lunar New Year’s eve, most people eat dumplings and fish. They eat carp and catfish. They eat carp because that symbolizes they are going to have a good year and because it will bring you good fortune.
FACTS
Do you know about the Komodo dragon? They are very strong lizards. They are the world's strongest lizard. It is the world's 2nd strongest reptile. Saltwater Croc is rated the world's 3rd and 1st is King Cobra. Male komodo dragons are 13 mph in the water. Females swim about 6-20 mph. They are 13 mph on land. The weight for the komodo dragon is not really heavy for the world's strongest lizard. Males weigh 170-200 lbs. Females are 150-160 lbs. The length for a male is 8.5 ft. females can grow up to be 7.5 ft. You can find Komodo Dragons in Komodo (island). They lay eggs, too. Komodo dragons will protect their eggs. They will attack humans, and birds that try to steal their eggs. Some female can lay eggs with no sex. Komodo dragons are in the family of monitor lizards. They are a species of squamata (scaled reptiles) reptile. They are closely related to Bearded dragons. Komodo dragons are not bearded dragons though. They are monitor lizards. Monitor lizards cannot change gender like how bearded dragons do.
SPECIES
Komodo dragons are venomous. They often hunt Javan Rusa and Water Buffalo. They have teeth like sharks. Just like sharks, they are both a scavenger and a predator. Komodo dragons act like a croc when they swim. They both do not show their body and only stick out their head!
RATE THIS ANIMAL
I will give this animal 10 stars because It is a reptile and I like reptiles. also because I like swimming reptiles and venomous reptiles.
GLOSSARY
Predator - An animal that hunts alive prey and usually doesn’t hunt in packs.
Scavenger - an animal that eats off dead carcasses and normally lives in packs.
American Bison
Since this year is the ox but I already did the American bison I will just send you the paper.
Family: Bovidae (includes sheep, cattle antelope and goats)
Group live: Found in herds
Introduction
Happy new year. This week’s animal was supposed to be an ox but happened to be one of the zodiac animals! But I have to do American new year. Zodiac animals are Chinese which is not north America but Asia. So the American bison is for North America. The ox and the American bison are in the same class (the class of a living thing is not like in school, is part of the taxonomy and class is like the family).
Facts
The American bison happened to be the largest animal in North America. Being 930 lbs is not a lot of weight for the largest animal in North America. But 2,200 lbs is very heavy. Yup, that’s right, an American bison is 930- 2,200 pounds. This animal can grow up to 7- 11.5 ft. Male bison are called BULLS. BULLS can be 6 ft long. Female bisons called COWS. COWS can be 4-5 ft tall.
Are American bison nocturnal?
No, American bison are not nocturnal. But they do sleep standing up. These animals are not the only ones who sleep like that. Cows, moose, rhinos, bison, horse, and among them. But if these mid-sized mammals are DEEP asleep, they have to sleep laying down. They only sleep standing up so-than if a predator comes, they can run. For horses, when they sleep on the floor, it’s hard for them to get up.
Review time!
I will give this animal 9 stars because it's a slow animal. I like fast animals instead. But I'll give it more than five and like seven because males fight with their head like a pachycephalosaurus.
Comments