新年快樂! Shīn nián kuài lè! Happy [Chinese] New Year! Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday here in Taiwan. Chinese New Year:Taiwan as Christmas:America. So it's time to par-tay! We're off on an exciting adventure on the east coast. But I want to do some blogging about Chinese New Year traditions here in Taiwan, cuz it's pretty fascinating stuff. We've been talking about it with our students, because often times, the Taiwanese don't understand their own traditions. They have to ask the oldest generations to find out the reasons why they do certain things. One of my first graders (Derek) was telling me that he went to the temple to pray with his parents (for Chinese New Year), and he was so confused...even afterward, he still didn't have the slightest idea why he had prayed to the gods. You should have seen the look on his face...he was so confused! It was a really cute look, though.
Chinese New Year begins on the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and it ends on the 15th day of the month. So this year, Saturday 2/13 is New Year's Eve, and Sunday 2/14 is the first day of the new year (which will be year 99 in Taiwan).
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