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

Today, third grade Mandarin students at Glen Head School performed a lion and dragon dance parade as a very important part of celebrating Lunar New Year 2024. This year represents the Year of the Dragon.

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 Glen Head 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. 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