Celebrate Chinese New Year at the Urbana Free Library

     If you were in Taiwan, Mainland China, or Hong Kong right now, you would see every family busily preparing for the New Year celebration: cleaning, posting door scrolls, shopping for new clothes, preparing New Year’s food. Here, though not able to personally enjoy all the festivities, overseas Chinese can still enjoy the excitement through contact with family, friends and the media. Our foreign friends and neighbors have probably also sensed our enthusiasm for Chinese New Year, our most important holiday.

    Traditionally, Chinese New Year celebrations include family reunions, neighbors’ greetings, and nationwide celebrations. Over the years, more and more Chinese have gone aboard to study, work or immigrate. For many different reasons, millions of Chinese have to stay abroad during Chinese New Year, and celebrations of Chinese New Year organized by local overseas Chinese groups has become an annual phenomenon all over the world.

    The Urbana Free Library Children’s Department has been offering a special family program to celebrate Chinese New Year for the past few years. We invite you to join in as we do it again this year. Through this public program, we not only try to introduce a part of Chinese culture to the local community and offer some consolation for the homesickness experienced by overseas Chinese, but we also offer an opportunity for mutual understanding and bonding within the community.

     Whether your last year was wonderful or full of hardship, even without firecrackers we can still scare off the old year beast “年”, and boldly take on the challenges of next year by celebrating among friends! New hope comes with the New Year, so come join us to mark a new beginning!

     We have prepared a series of activities to celebrate the Chinese New Year –

1. Jan. 3 – Feb. 28, First floor display case: Chinese arts and crafts and new additions of Chinese and Chinese/English bilingual language children’s e-materials. (Thanks to generous donation and support from our local Chinese group CACCI members Mr. Yu Wang and Ms. Ya Xin Chen)

2. Jan. 29, Saturday, 2 – 2:45 p.m. Children’s Department; Chinese/English Bilingual Storytime (Provided by Asian American Cultural Center, University of Illinois)

3. Feb. 5, Saturday, 1 – 2 p.m., UFL Auditorium; Chinese New Year Celebration program. (Lion Dance, Chinese Yo-Yo, Taichi fan and other Chinese performing arts.)

4. Feb. 9, Wednesday, 6:30 – 7:15 p.m., UFL Auditorium; The Prairie Breezes Family Concerts featuring Chinese instrumental music.

If you have any questions, please call the Children’s Department at 367-4069. Chinese help is also available.

 

Shih-Mei C.

庆祝中国新年“虎”年2010

古老传说， 新传统，今年

古老传说 –

根据古老的传说， “年”是一个凶猛的怪兽，长年深居海底，每到除夕，爬上岸来吞食牲畜伤害人命，摧毁村庄。每到除夕，人们总是逃往深山，以躲避“年”的伤害。直到有一年的除夕， 一位疑是神先的老人独自一人驱逐了这个怪兽。人们由神先老人那学到了在除夕夜以爆竹，灯火，和红对联吓走怪兽。人们还在次晨，新年日的早晨互道“恭喜”，庆祝大家平安逃离了怪兽的威胁。

新传统 –

今日的新年传统习俗是讲究家庭团聚，朋友互祝来年顺利发达。越来越多的中国人住在海外，或是工作忙碌，或是经济情况，或是其他原因， 大多数海外的中国人不能年年回家和家人团圆过年。也因此，参加社区的新年活动，和朋友们一块庆祝新年就显得更有意义了。

今年 –

二月六日，星期六，下午两点到三点，The Urbana Free Library 图书馆将举办一个庆祝中国新年的活动。节目内容包括武狮，扯铃，音乐 等等中国传统艺术 表演。这个活动不仅将简介一小部分中国五千年的文化，更是希望带给社区的中外朋友们新年的喜悦。 --Shih Mei C.

Chinese New Year 2010, The Year of the Tiger

The legend—

According to an old Chinese legend, the word “year” ("年" pronounced “Nian”) was a monster which would come out every New Year‘s eve to devour livestock and people or to destroy the nearby village. People would run and hide in the mountains from this monster, until one year, an old man, perhaps a deity, scared the monster away single handedly. People learned from him to use firecrackers, big lanterns, and red banners on New Year’s Eve to frighten the monster away. The people then congratulated each other the next morning on New Year’s Day to celebrate that they lived through the monster’s terror safely!

The tradition—

Today the Chinese New Year is about family reunions and wishing everyone good fortune for the coming year. But with more and more Chinese living overseas, busy schedules, financial restraints, and other reasons make it impossible for most Chinese abroad to go home to celebrate the New Year with friends and share the joy with their community.

The celebration—

On Saturday, February 6 from 2 – 3 p.m. a Chinese New Year Celebration that includes a Lion dance, Chinese yoyos, and Chinese music will take place in The Urbana Free Library Lewis Auditorium. This program will not only highlight a part of 5,000 years of Chinese culture and tradition but will also bring the joy of the New Year celebration to everyone in the community, whether Chinese or not. Share Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Goldsmith with your children to get ready for the celebration. --Shih Mei C. and Barb L.