2. Introduction

Title:

Chinese Spring Festival(Chinese New Year)

Description: This webquest explores Chinese New Year 's lunar calendar, celebration, traditional food, decoration, traditional customs, lantern festival, Chinese Zodiac, and Chinese New Year vs. Christmas celebration in America.

Grade Level: 9-12

Curriculum: Chinese language and culture

Key words: 农历新年Lunar new year，节 spring festival，红 包red envelope，春联 spring couplet，福happiness，年year，元宵节 lantern festival，灯笼 lantern，恭喜发财 wish you be rich， 除夕new year's eve，年夜饭 dinner at new year's eve，拜年，庆 祝celebrate，放鞭炮have fireworks。

Chinese New Year is also referred to as Spring Festival (Chun Jie).Chinese New Year lasts about 15 days and is followed by the Lantern festival. In China, people call this day Spring Festival and not Chinese New Year. However, to make it easier to understand, we will use the word "Chinese New Year" more often. New Year for Chinese people is like Christmas in the West. This is the most decorated holiday for Chinese people, and as a matter of fact, for all of Asia as a whole.

Out of the various festivities celebrated by the Chinese, this is the longest and most important festival of all. It is a time where families and friends living in different parts of the country or the world gather to celebrate it together. It is also a time to reflect on the real meaning of ancient customs and traditions. Chinese New Year is observed as a public holiday in countries where there is a fairly large Chinese population, such as China, HongKong, Taiwan, Singapore.

Chinese New Year is related to Chinese Zodiac in many ways. A baby born in the year of the pig is considered to be the luckiest baby. Chinese people believe that if the New Year animal is the same as the animal for the year you were born, then lots of life-changing events will occur for you. For example, if you were born in the year of the dragon and 2012 is the year of the dragon, then 2012 will be an important year. Fish is the symbol on Chinese New Year because it represents abundance and wealth.

There are also a lot traditional Chinese customs for Chinese New Year, such as red packet, spring couplets, dragon dancing, traditional decoration etc.

Through this WebQuest, you will be challenged to create your own understanding of the Chinese New Year based upon your observations.

Good luck, and remember the Chinese proverb:

A jade stone is useless before it is processed;

玉不琢不成器

Yù bù zhuó bù chéng qì,

A man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.

人不教难成才

rén bù jiào nán chéng cái