Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Congratulations and be prosperous!)

Happy Chinese New Year!  Here are some pictures from our celebration today.  We are going to end the day by carrying out dinner from our all time favorite Chinese restaurant as it is horribly cold here in the mid-west.

We collected a few Chinese items at Vancouver during our recent vacation there.  I had bought them originally for the geography box, but they came in handy today.

We started the day making Cherry blossom tree for good luck! I did not have pink tissue paper, so we just used pink construction paper, it turned out ok though!



Then we made some red paper lanterns.


We talked about the festival itself, lunar cycle, the year of the rabbit and about the color Red in the culture. We talked about China and that led to the talking about Pandas and D wanted to draw one.  She did with simple instructions from me.  D wanted to wear Red and we picked a red outfit for M too!  We then set all our goodies on D's red table, prayed and meditated for a great new year!



Here is our Buddha...


I told her about the Red envelope tradition and gave her the envelope with a couple of dollars!  It is interesting to note that the amount you give should be even, odd is considered bad luck and never number 8!


We got this box and small trinket while at Vancouver. No idea what the trinket signifies.


For more information on the customs and traditions check out this link.