Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, aka Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the most important traditional holiday in China and is celebrated across Asia. Of course, the East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) diaspora celebrate the festivities globally. But do you know the story behind it? It all started more than four thousand year ago, with a beast named Nian. According to legend, Nian would come to villages to scare and eat the villagers, particularly children. However, people found that Nian was afraid of the colour red and loud noises, so they began to decorate their homes with red lanterns and set off loud fireworks to scare Nian away. This tradition continues to this day, with people decorating their homes in red, giving red envelopes filled with money as gifts, and setting off fireworks. In my family, we'd all gather on New Year's Eve around a table full of delicious dishes.

In the spirit of such important events, OIS has had a long history for hosting Chinese New Year bake sale - as long as 7 years (of course with tremendous help from many staff, students and parents)! The intention of such event is to not only interchange our unique culture with students of other nationalities, but also bonding with the OIS community. Although Eastern holidays such as the Chinese New Year are significantly different from those in the West, essentially, we are just happy to spend time with family, friends and why not take a rest to appreciate life. May you all have a joyful, healthy and prosperous year of rabbit!