恭贺新禧

There were a number of different celebrations for Chinese New Year at Ipswich School for pupils to get involved in.

Boarders enjoyed a special Chinese New Year meal on Tuesday evening in the Dining Hall, and the Library staff set up Wishing Trees in the Library and Junior Library. Pupils can write their wishes for this year on a red tag and hang them on the trees.

Students in the school’s Mandarin Club have been learning Chinese New Year greetings and practising their calligraphy skills. They created some traditional calligraphic artworks to celebrate the Year of the Tiger and these are displayed in the Library and around the school.

Origin of Chinese New Year Traditions

According to tales and legends, Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian (a beast that lives under the sea or in the mountains) during the annual Spring Festival. 

The Nian would eat villagers, especially children, in the middle of the night. One year, all the villagers decided to hide from the beast. An older man appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he would stay up for the night and would get revenge on the Nian. 

The old man put red papers up and set off firecrackers. The day after, the villagers came back to their town and saw that nothing had been destroyed. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the colour red and loud noises. 

From this the tradition grew that when New Year was approaching, people would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors, and use firecrackers and drums to frighten away the Nian. 

Now people still wear red clothes, hang red new year scrolls, and set off firecrackers as the Chinese New Year customs. And the colour red has also become the colour of good luck.

People also used this beast name “Nian” as the word for “year”. 

Wei Heng Z, Year 11

Chinese New Year Food

At Chinese New Year, families will gather around to have lunch or dinner in a Cantonese style restaurant (Jau Lau). Loads of delicious food like dim sum, roast suckling pig, fried sesame ball and whole fish are some popular dishes to eat. 

There is also special food that symbolises luck and blessing. The whole family will make sweet rice balls (Tong yuen) together, which is a blessing to have a nice and warm reunion with family and relatives every year. Sesame and peanut are the best flavour for rice balls. 

People will prepare a Hong Kong style candy tray for people who will visit their house, so they can eat the goodies inside while chatting. A favourite one is peanut candy. It is basically fried peanuts combined with syrup which is sweet and crispy. Some pistachio nuts, melon seed and  lotus seeds will also be put in the candy tray, but mango flavoured chewy candy is the most popular snack among children. 

Ruby C, Sophia L and Mimi T, Year 11