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Celebrating the Lunar New Year

As communities around the world continue their celebrations of the Lunar New Year, McDonogh students expanded their understanding of the holiday and found ways to celebrate during the week of January 23. They created decorations, learned how to use chopsticks and make dumplings, practiced the dragon dance, and held a special assembly with traditional performances and educational videos.

Middle schoolers decorated the Greenebaum Building for the occasion with festive ornaments including a wish tree in the lobby of the building. PK students visited Jewel Xie’s sixth grade Chinese class to learn more about the holiday and create wishes of their own to hang on the tree. Middle schoolers also learned and performed a fan dance, practicing their counts in Chinese. Lower School students were treated to a traditional dragon dance performed by middle schoolers in Xuan Weng’s class during lunch and they crafted Chinese lanterns in their global learning class.

At McDonogh, the study of Chinese begins in kindergarten, and students can choose to continue studying the language in Middle and Upper School. As with all world languages, classes are meant to awaken a global awareness in students. In addition to learning to speak, read, and write the language, students also explore the culture through history, art, cuisine, and time-honored traditions. Xin Nián Kuài Lè! Happy Lunar New Year!

Learn more about Lunar New Year from McDonogh upper schoolers here. 

Watch the Middle School Lunar New Year Celebration video here.