
Our Early Years calendars are brimming with events that we want to teach our children about. We approach these with a genuine excitement to bathe children into a culture other than their own - it is after all how many people interpret the concept of 'Cultural Capital.' These experiences vary, let me share one with you from my teaching career.
I was on my fourth-year teaching practice. I was encouraged to design a lesson that made 'Chinese New Year' real to the children. I was encouraged to give them a prawn cracker, some sweet chilli sauce and say, 'Gung Hay Fat choy.' I think back to this and in my opinion, the children learned very little. We need to tune into why. Let's delve into Lunar New Year as the experience, but this blog could easily be applied to other celebrations too.

This wasn't the last time I made this mistake. But I feel like I've learned from this. This kind of learning is often too tokenistic and isn't doing the job I need it to.
Right off the bat let's begin with the name of this festival. Roughly 2 billion people celebrate this event, many of whom are outside of China. In fact, this festival is celebrated as Tết in Vietnam, Seollal in Korea, Imlek in Indonesia and in China it's often referred to as 'Spring Festival.' Referring to it as 'Chinese New Year' is less inclusive to those who call it something else, therefore 'Lunar New Year' is generally used to be more inclusive. We can tie ourselves into knots about this. It's actually a much more complex festival when you consider the multiple cultures, communities and countries that celebrate this. My advice is to refer to it as 'Lunar New Year' as a default BUT if you have specific families who celebrate it and name it something else, use that terminology with that child and family. (In the same way you'd call say 'Granny' rather than Nana if a child uses that term!)
Let's talk about the learning associated with this festival. If you have children who have never experienced Lunar New Year, then immersing them in the whole experience could be too much. As adults, we need to find ways to help them form connections between their learned experiences and new ones presented at this festival. For example:
Giving money in red envelopes - Have children given presents, cards or money before?
Hanging decorations - Have they hung decorations at other festivals such as at Christmas or birthdays?
Fireworks - Have they experienced fireworks and understand why they're being used?
Lighting lanterns - Have they experienced candles, flames/fire, items that float and decorations?
Religious rituals - This one is more complicated. Some religious ceremonies around Lunar New Year involve sacrifices presented on alters etc. Have children got sufficient knowledge
Dragon dancing - Have they moved their bodies in dance before? Have they used large props and worked in co-ordination?
Eating a range of local foods - Have they experienced family feasts etc?
Using foreign language phrases (greetings) - Do children understand about other languages and that they carry meaning?
You might decide that you could explore celebration meals and make connections to dinners they will have already experienced with their families (e.g. Christmas, Eid etc.) I suggest you use very simple resources for this. That could be a photograph of a dinner scene, a simple picture book (and using only that page) or a short video of a dinner scene. Whilst exploring these together you'll be supporting children to make connections with their own experiences by talking, providing new language and drawing similarities and differences out.
(Besea.n is a recommended resource for this) - Thanks to Liz Pemberton

When it comes to the learning we want to build, we need to remember how scaffolding works. Imagine rungs on a ladder. The closer the rungs are to each other the easier it is to climb that ladder. Where gaps exist on this ladder children will need to make leaps, with some not able to achieve this.
What about the wonderful experiences, are we just meant to ignore them?
No! back to the ladder! As children get older, they will be immersed in developmentally appropriate experiences over time that will slowly grow their understanding of Lunar New Year. This may happen over many years and by the time they’re adults, they may be able to attend Lunar New Year celebrations and engage fully. Of course, some children may show a deep fascination, feel free to go further but do so gradually.
Do we NEED to celebrate Lunar New Year?
No. It’s found its way onto our calendar as one those events that most schools and settings have talked about at some point. But our world is rich in cultures and experiences, someone somewhere just started to explore this, and it stuck. It could easily have been any number of other celebrations.
We also need to consider what impact this is having on children and whether some other event or experience may be more useful. Without cultural links in the class or community, is Lunar New Year even a real experience to these children. Could celebrating Eid or Pride be more useful?
Final notes:
I am not an expert in DEI. If you believe some of my advice is inappropriate for educators, please call me in via my contact me page. (Calling in means to talk directly, calling out is to do so publicly.)
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