Lion and Dragon Dance Parade at GH School to Celebrate Lunar New Year

This week, third and fourth grade Mandarin students at Glen Head School performed a lion and dragon dance parade as a very important part of celebrating Lunar New Year 2022. This year represents the Year of the Tiger.

Mandarin teacher, Jingwen Cai, said “Each student in the parade was responsible for his or her own role including singer, money giver, drummer, lion dancer, or dragon dancer.  When the parade pushed into the different classrooms, all of the students sang one of the most popular Lunar New Year songs called Gongxi  Gongxi.” 

She concluded by saying, “My students had the opportunity to try out all of the different roles. If they sang the song correctly in Mandarin, they were rewarded with some replica money (fake but looks the same as the real money in China!) We followed the ancient Chinese tradition that kids get a ‘red envelope” stuffed with money for new year!”

Students district-wide have been learning about Lunar New Year and its traditions
in their Mandarin classes.

Article written with assistance from Ms. Jingwen Cai, Mandarin teacher
Photos by Shelly Newman