On Monday, February 1 it was the Lunar new year, celebrated throughout the world from a Lunar calendar based in many Asian countries, but celebrated worldwide. This is not the only one. It is one of so many renewals worldwide.
This new moon is based around a story in which a race took place, of twelve (sometimes thirteen) animals. Like all stories that are this old, and that span geographically, they vary from country to country, as do their traditions. Together with your students, learn the stories in Vietnam, Taiwan, China, and Korea that celebrate the new year based on this lunar cycle. This year, the year of the tiger. Consider what the year might hold, the students can also look up what year they were born in in relation to the lunar new year of that time.
These kinds of renewals remind us that it is earth’s prerogative to regenerate itself, and as these living beings, we do along with it.
Many of the traditions throughout the year are based on food, whether that be migratory, or agriculturally. The new year is no different. Of course newness is different in each area depending on how food is cultivated and consumed. For many in the northern hemisphere, the new year lands sometime near the end of winter, right before seeds begin to germinate in earnest. The movements of spring happen long before they are widely seen. To focus on food as a way to bolster cultural meaning, look at the ways in which myth weaves into the foods that are prepared and eaten during this time of year. For many Asian countries, rice is the staple grain. Every third person on the earth eats rice in one form or another every day. Together all grains directly supply more than 42% of all calories consumed by the entire human population, 78% of this number is rice.
During Tết, the new year in Vietnam, families prepare rice cakes called bánh chưng and bánh dầy. Each is wrapped in banana leaves, one is square, bánh chưng, and represents the earth, the second, bánh dầy is round and represents the sky. These two delicacies are translated as ‘heaven and earth cakes’ and are eaten together for Tết Nguyên Đán as a union of the material and the spiritual realms.
There are several rice myths that can be looked at depending on the age of the students you are working with, one includes the milk and blood of the goddess, Guan Yin. Another is that of a dog. Many myths have described the arrival of rice out of a climate catastrophe, being stuck to the tail of a dog. The rice plant grows in flood plains. The bush of grassy fronds does resemble the tail of a dog.
A few Lunar New Year activities relating to rice:
Make rice together. Try to make bánh chưng and bánh dầy
Learn about the rice plant, how it grows.
Draw a picture of the plant (with the dog or not)
Look at the ways in which people have farmed it (by using water ox and terracing the hills)
Further reading:
Bending Tree Education 