Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Are you short of ang pows/red packets/red envelopes, but still want to make something for this coming Chinese New Year? Then why not try out this fan ang pow decoration tutorial as it only uses 10 or 12 ang pows, depending on the shape and size of the ang pow. This fan decoration will look great hanging on the ceiling or as a wall decoration.
Gong xi, gong xi! Have you ever wondered why mandarin oranges are so important during the Chinese New Year? First, let me explain that the Chinese pronunciation of mandarin orange sounds like gold and wealth in abundance. Since Chinese people love to say or listen to good words, they believe the auspicious items will bring them luck and fortune for the whole year. Hence mandarin oranges played a major part during this festive season. We will have mandarin orange ornaments hanging on the ceiling, ang pow displays (I will be showing you how to do it below), tangerine or kumquat tree plants and many more items throughout the whole house.
Ong lai! Ong lai! Did you know that the pineapple is known as ong lai in the Hokkien dialect? It also means prosperity comes/brings wealth! This is why we Chinese love to display pineapple ornaments throughout the house/workplace in the hope that it will bring their family/business lots of good fortune for the Chinese New Year.
Many years back, I wrote a blog post about Chinese New Year wall decoration and showcased a few examples. This coming Year of Water Rabbit 2023, instead of buying ready-made wall decorations, why not make your very own ang pow wreath? I will show you the step-by-step with photo illustrations and hope you like it.
This is a Chinese New Year lotus ang pow lantern. Have you made yours yet? If you have not, why not check out my Chinese New Year craft section for more inspiration? Today we are making this lotus ang pow lantern to decorate your home. This lantern is quite big (approximately 23 – 26 cm by 26 cm) and heavy as I have used 30 ang pows to make it.
Who loves money? Chinese people believe that in the coming New Year, the house needs to fill with good fortune and wealth in order to be wealthy for the rest of the year. Hence they decorate their house full of auspicious items to welcome good fortune, wealth and prosperity! On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the God of Wealth will visit each household to bless the family with wealth. This is why we never sweep the floor for the first few days of the new year. It is bad luck if we sweep the floor, as we will sweep all the wealth away!
This Chinese New Year Candy ang pow lantern is more fanciful and beautiful than a simple plain Chinese lantern. It is like an upgrade to a more complicated looking lantern and it does not require any more materials than a simple lantern, except a pair of scissors. It also looks like a candy wrapper.
Hello everyone! We are almost reaching the end of the Year of the Water Tiger and in 2023, we will welcome the year of the Water Rabbit. The fifteen days of the Chinese New Year start from 22nd January 2023 to 5th February 2023.
You might be wondering why do Chinese people fill their homes full of Chinese New Year decorations. Basically, it’s to fill their house with plenty of good wishes e.g. the whole year brimful with happiness, good health, wealth, prosperity etc. It is equivalent to how western cultures decorate their houses with Christmas decorations and ornaments with wreaths, candles, mistletoe etc. Usually, we hope the new year will bring good health, wealth and prosperity! Hence we love hanging a lot of decorations around the house.
Do you like origami and love to learn about Chinese culture? Then this is the right place for you – check out this awesome looking ang pow origami dog! The first day of the Chinese New Year 2018 falls on the 16th February which is the Year of the Earth Dog. The Dog is the eleventh of all zodiac animals. It is one of the most important days for Chinese culture. It marks the new year and we welcome the good fortune into the home by hanging lots of decorations!
Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐 Saying bye bye to the Brother Horse and welcoming the Year of the gentle Goat/Sheep. This year, we have been making a lot of sheep crafts. Do take a look at our CNY Pinterest board! To help keep us busy this half term, we decided to make a goat from a wooden spoon. This year happens to be the Wood Goat year. So what better than making a craft out of wood!
Last Tuesday, we had our Lichfield Mandarin Club’s Chinese New Year celebration and one of the party snacks was fortune cookies. They are my son’s favourite and he even kept all the strips of papers as he really hopes that they will come true!
In these coming months, I will be partnering with a few major retailers for the National Stationery Week (27 April – 3 May 2015) to get Britain writing, and to focus on the importance of handwriting.
This week I have received this staple free stapler from KOKUYO, Japan’s leading stationery brand. Harinacs staple free stapler holds sheets of paper without using metal staples (maximum of 6 sheet of paper at a weight of 80 gsm). This innovative and quirky stapler comes in three different designs and in a range of fun colours; including pink, blue, green, brown, white and black. They are available to buy from www.stonegift.com. So I am using Harinacs staple to make a stapleless Chinese New Year lantern.
I am so thrilled to join in Multicultural Kids Blogs’ first annual series on Chinese New Year. Today I am sharing this Chinese New Year spiral craft. This spiral craft is great for decoration for teaching your children to recognise the Chinese New Year auspicious words. This is very simple to make.
A big welcome to our week 4 of the Tuesday Tutorials Pintorials Pin Party! It is almost the end of the month! How are your new year resolutions holding up? I wanted to exercise more and it’s so far so good – I’ve been covering 3,000 steps a day.
This is my Chinese New Year ang pow flower lantern tutorial. If you would like to learn about other lantern designs I had made previously, do take a look at my Pinterest board for Chinese New Year.
