Lunar New Year and Year of the Horse Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent these books digitally to review free of charge from Immedium. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Although we celebrate our New Year on January 1st, there are many places around the world that celebrate the new year at a different time (and some celebrate it at two times January 1st and a cultural traditional time). Friday, January 31st is the lunar new year. Now some cultures that celebrate the lunar new year are the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Mongolian. The Chinese are the largest group that celebrate it and is the one we hear about most often.


China

Source

 Now China is the largest celebrated lunar new year. Traditionally the celebration of the lunar new year lasted fifteen days. Now in modern times it is usually two or three days. The days leading up to the new year are important in China. The Chinese clean their houses from top to bottom prior to the new year and never on New Year's Day in fear that good fortune will be swept away. They pay off their debts, buy new clothes and shoes to wear on the first day of the year (it is considered lucky to wear all new clothing on the first day of the year since wearing old clothes brings bad luck in the year to come) and have their hair cut. As the old year ends people focus on their mistakes and failures and think about how to act better in the new year. Oranges and tangerines are traditional gifts for friends and family. They are also a favorite offering to the ancestors. Tangerines still have their leaves attached to make sure the family ties remain secure. For food, a chicken is served to ensure prosperity, a Tray of Togetherness (circular or octagonal candy tray) serves sweets each symbolizing happiness, long life, good health and other good wishes.

 The Shēngxiào also known as the Chinese Zodiac relates an animal with each year in a twelve year cycle. The year ending tonight is the year of the snake. The new year is the year of the horse. There are different legends of how the animals were picked and the order they go were picked in. Each animal presents certain personality traits for the people born in those years as well as ways the year should go. People born in the year of the horse love to be in a crowd and extremely active and animated. They love to be the center of attention and can be impatient and hot-blooded. 

I was lucky enough to receive a digital copy of Oliver Chin's The Year of the Horse: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac from Immedium. This adorable story goes through the live a foal and a young boy, Tom. Tom and the foal, Hannah, become good friends. The young boy's teacher has been asked to send a painting for the governor. She needs someone to deliver it, but everyone is busy. Tom offers to do the job, but the teacher feels he needs someone to go with him. All of the horses in Hannah's family are too busy to help so Hannah volunteers. Hannah and Tom ride off to make the delivery. They come across some challenges: a snake, a tiger, and dark, chilly nights, but together they are able to get through/past all of them. Hannah jumps the snake and walks nimbly by the sleeping tiger. Together the pair spends the cold night in a cave with a fire. They make the delivery and the governor invites them to dinner. They see a few sights of the city, but want to get home. They enjoy the sights on the way home since they do not have an important job to accomplish anymore. When they arrive home, the teacher shares a copy of the painting. It is the Chinese word for horse and the teacher says it describes Hannah's valiant spirit. The two friends loved to play together and remained good companions.

For more on China check out DIY Fortune Cookies, Chinese Cinderella, Chinese New Year 2013, Chinese New Year Instruments,

Sources: World Book's Celebrations and Rituals Around the World New Year's Celebrations  and Wikipedia and China Highlights

Korea
In Korea the lunar new year is called Seol. Generally it falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. It is a family holiday with much respect for one's family and ancestors. The Korean house is usually cleaned and special foods are prepared. The house lights remain on throughout the night and the people stay up to greet New Year's Day or Seollal. On Seollal people dress in the best clothes and start their day with Chayre. Charye is the ritual to make the food offerings to their ancestors. An altar table is set carefully with special foods. The family's leader conducts the ritual while someone else reads the chuk mun, the list of ancestor's names. Then the children perform Sebae, when they formally greet their elders (parents and grandparents). The children receive money and cakes and then there are special breakfasts, visits with neighbors, games, fortune telling and dancing. A typical game is yut which involves four sticks being thrown into the air and telling a fortune from how they land. Everyone in Korea eats one bowl of ttokkuk, rice cake soup on New Year's Day and they count their age by the number of New Year's Days they have lived through or how many bowls of ttokkuk they have eaten.

For more information and stories from Korea check out our past posts: The Korean Cinderella, Chap ch'ae (Around the World in 12 Dishes), and Kongi and Potgi: A Korean Cinderella.

Sources: Wikipedia and World Book's Celebrations and Rituals Around the World New Year's Celebrations 

Vietnam

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In Vietnam, the new year is called Tết. It is the most important celebration of the Vietnamese culture. People prepare for it by cleaning the house and preparing special foods. There are also many customs that go along with it like visiting friends and relatives and forgetting the bad of the past year. Similar to the Chinese, children receive red envelopes of money from their elders on New Year's Day. The first day of the new year is reserved for nuclear family. Since the Vietnamese think the first person to enter their house in the new year determines their fortune for the whole year, no one visits without an invitation. Sweeping during the holiday is taboo in fear of sleeping away good luck. The second day is usually reserved for friends and the third for teachers. They have some traditional food. One such food is Hạt Dưa or roasted watermelon seeds.

For more on Thailand check out The Golden Slipper post.

Sources: Wikipedia

Mongolia

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Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian New Year, literally means white moon. It is one of the most important holidays in Mongolia. Around the new year families burn candles on the altar to symbolize Buddhist Enlightenment. Typically the family meets in the dwelling of the eldest member and dress in traditional Mongol costumes. When greeting their elders during Tsagaan Sar, Mongols perform a greeting ceremony called zolgokh. The eldest receives the greeting from each member except his spouse. After the greeting the family eats mutton, sheep's tail, dairy products, rice with curds, and buuz and exchange gifts. 

The day before Tsagaan Sar the Mongols completely clean their homes and herders clean their livestock barns to provide a complete fresh start for the new year. They also have a ceremony that includes burning candles on this day. 

Source: Wikipedia

So that is a bit about the lunar new year. What will you do to celebrate? We are planning on making some dumplings and having a Chinese inspired meal. We did make horse stick puppets. The pattern and idea came from Better Homes and Garden.



Finally, as promised here are some more ideas for learning about the Chinese New Year and crafts to do--these all came from last week's Sharing Saturday!

1) From Afterschool Learning for Smarty Pants: 8 Ways to Teach Your Kids about China


2) From In the Playroom: Chinese Crafts for Kids - Chinese Fans


3) From Gift of Curiosity: Chinese New Year Do-a-Dot Printables


If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button. I hope you will join us for this week's Sharing Saturday!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: The Korean Cinderella

Last week we shared Kongi and Potgi by Oki S. Han. This week I am going to share The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo. It is very similar to Kongi and Potgi, but has a few differences. Since we explored a bit about Korea last week (both in the fairy tale post and our Around the World in 12 Dishes post), we will go right into the story.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Korea Chap ch'ae

Have you entered my current giveaway? It ends Tuesday!!

Around the World in 12 Dishes is traveling to Korea this month. On Sunday we shared a Korean Cinderella tale called Kongi and Potgi. Today we are going to share our experience trying some Korean recipes and music and stories. We also did a few easy Korean crafts.

Coloring Page from RainbowKids

The dish we spent the most time making together was Chap ch'ae or Mixed Vegetables with Cellophane Noodles.  We found the recipe in Cooking the Korean Way by Okwha Chung and Judy Monroe. We compared recipes in a few books. We all loved this meal.

Chap ch'ae (adapted from Cooking the Korean Way)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
4 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
1 boneless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 package of cellophane noodles
6 tablespoons oil (unless you have the pan I have)
1 large onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 cup baby spinach, washed
5 teaspoons sesame oil
(Note: we took out the black mushrooms and water for them and the bean sprouts)

1. In  a large ziploc bag combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, garlic, 2 teaspoons sesame seeds. Add chicken and seal and distribute the mixture among the chicken. (Note: if you do not have toasted sesame seeds, toast them first by putting them in a frying pan with no oil and on medium heat. Stir and cook until they are brown and smelly nutty.)
2. Cook and drain noodles according to package. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a large frying pan or wok, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over high heat for 1 minute. Add the chicken and fry, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until chicken is white and tender. Remove from heat and add chicken to noodles. (We have a new pan that does not require oil to cook, so we did not use any oil for the cooking. I love this new pan!)
4. Wipe out pan. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and cook vegetables. (The recipe says to do this separately, but we did it together as a stir-fry.) Then add vegetables to chicken and noodles. 
5. Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, sesame oil and remaining sesame seeds. Pour over mixture.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 While this was cooking and we were eating we made Oi naeng guk or cold cucumber soup (the recipe also came from Cooking the Korean Way). We however did not really like it, so we are not going to share it with you. A different night I made Pulgogi (Barbecued beef) which we loved, but Hazel did not help make it and I didn't take any pictures (it was eaten before I got my camera out). The recipe also came from Cooking the Korean Way.

We have been enjoying some Korean stories as well. Here are the variety of picture books we have found at our library. One goes through the alphabet and describes things in Korea. Another counts to ten in English and Korean and relates each number to something in Korea. Then there are traditional stories as well as modern stories.

 We also made some crafts. One that we did was a simple version of the Korean game, Yut-nori.  There are simple instructions on TLC. We used dot markers instead of stickers and I let Hazel do it. We used glass gems as our playing pieces.

We also made a traditionally dressed paper doll. We got it from Education.com. Hazel loved this craft and wants me to make more clothes for her.

We also made a Tradtional Korean Sam Taeguk Fan from a template found at 4 Crazy Kings. I let Hazel choose the colors and had not shown her theirs, but she picked the same colors.

Our final exploration of Korea has been listening to some music we got from the library. The first two CD's we listened to came from the adult section and they were all right, but we did not listen to them too long. We have not listened to the children's music yet, but I'm planning on bringing it in my car tomorrow on our way to school.

So that is our exploration of Korea. Have you cooked any Korean food that you would like to share in our trip around the world? This blog hop is brought to you by the following amazing blogs! Please be sure to visit them to see what they cooked this month.

Adventures In Mommydom - Afterschooling for Smarty Pants - All Done Monkey - Crafty Moms Share - Creative World of Varya - Glittering Muffins - Here Come The Girls - Kid World Citizen -  Mermaids’ Makings - The Educators’ Spin On It - Maroc Mama

Also check out Around the World in 12 Dishes on Pinterest. Be sure to follow so you will not miss a thing! The Korean Placemat is available here and the Korean Passport Pages are available here. Now it is your turn to share or to be inspired to try some of the recipes shared at this blog hop!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Kongi and Potgi: a Korean Cinderella

After having my parents visiting for Grandparents Day at Hazel's school, I am catching up with things like my blog. Today I am sharing a Korean Cinderella. On Tuesday I will be sharing our post for Around the World in 12 Dishes for Korea, so I thought it was a good time. We are doing our fairy tale today since Monday is the Virtual Book Club for Kids blog hop day. Before we get into the story, let's look at Korea a bit.

Korea is surrounded by water since rivers divide it from China and Russia and the Yellow Sea, Korea Strait and East Sea are on three sides. Korea is divided into two distinct sovereign states: North Korea and South Korea. The division of two separate governments happened at the end of World War II. North Korea was under the supervision of the Soviet Union, and South Korea was under the supervision/support of the United States and its Allies. North Korea is a communist republic and South Korea is a democracy. In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea with Soviet backing causing the Korean War. The result was more than one million people dead in the three years of fighting with neither state gaining much land.

Source: By Map_of_korea.png: User:Yonghokimderivative work: Valentim
(Map_of_korea.png) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Korea itself has a rich history with habitation going back to prehistory times. Hominid fossils have been found there dating to 100,000 BC or perhaps as far as 300,000 BC. In the 2nd century BC they adopted the Chinese alphabet, Hanja (in Korean), and in 1443 they developed their own alphabet, Hangul. This had a profound effect on Korea. Hangul is the official language of both North Korea and South Korea.  Their new alphabet was easier to learn and write. In the 4th century AD Buddhism was adopted.  Now there are several religions in South Korea, however the traditional beliefs of Korean Shamanism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism remain the underlying religion for most Koreans.

Korean Palace Source: I, Skanky [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5],
via Wikimedia Commons

Throughout the centuries Korea was known for its silk and pottery. Their pottery made with blue green celadon was sought by even Arabian merchants since it was of the highest quality. One of the best known artifacts is the Cheomseongdae. It is the oldest surviving observatory in East Asia. It was built in 634. (Source)

Cheomseongdae Source: By Matt and Nayoung Wilson from Atlanta and surrounding, 
US (S1050317Uploaded by Caspian blue) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Now onto our story. I found three versions of this story. Two are picture books and one is a graphic novel. We will be using the version Kongi and Potgi by Oki S. Han for our summary, but all three were very similar.

In this story a couple have a daughter named Kongi. Kongi's mother gets ill and dies. Kongi's father fears his daughter not having a woman to help her as she gets older, so he remarries a woman who has a daughter Kongi's age named Potgi. He imagines Kongi and Potgi will become best friends. However this is not the case. The stepmother makes Kongi do all the chores while she and Potgi go to the market or relax. The father tries to stop this mistreatment, but realizes that his asking is not enough and goes along with it for the sake of his marriage. Then when there are events, she tells Kongi she cannot go unless she does near impossible jobs. However talking animals always come to her aid. 

Korean Doll I made last year

The first task is to hoe one of the fields. The stepmother gives Potgi the field near the river which is easy to hoe and give Kongi the one on the hillside which is much harder. Kongi breaks her wooden hoe trying to get the rocks out and finally ends up crying and a large ox comes to her aid and tells her he will clear and gives her an apple to eat. The stepmother and Potgi are at the market and see Kongi carrying a basket of apples. They are shocked she could be done already and she tells them about the ox, but they do not believe her. 

Before Kongi may go to the May Festival she must fill a jar with water, but the stepmother knows the jar has a hole in it near the bottom. A frog comes to help and stops the hole with his body. As Kongi and Potgi grew to be young women, they became excited to have the prince invite all the single young women to a great party is his honor so he could find a bride. This time the stepmother told Kongi she had to take bundles of grain to dry and remove each kernel of rice from the outer shell and she could not go to the palace until the jar was full. Sparrows came and helped her do this task. (This is similar to the Cinderella story from Vietnam.) After the jar is full, she realizes she has nothing to wear. Kongi looks at the sky and a beautiful rainbow appears with angels that dress her in the finest silks. Then four men with a sedan chair appear to carry her to the palace. 

When she walks in she gets everyone's attention. The prince comes right over to meet her. Kongi becomes flustered and runs away leaving behind one of the beautiful slippers the angels had put on her feet. The prince finds the slipper and vows to marry the woman who wore it. They search for the young woman by going to village to village and having women try it. The slipper always looks like it will fit, but never does until they get to Kongi. It fits her perfectly and she pulls out the matching one. Her stepmother and Potgi are amazed and later beg for her forgiveness for how they treated Kongi all these years. She forgives them and they begin doing things for others.

This is a lovely version since the stepmother and stepsister see their errors and Kongi forgives them. They all become better people and it is such a nice lesson to see at the end.

Korean Doll & Nature Turkeys

Today I thank God for my extended family and keeping all of us save through the hurricane and for the amazing cats we have been allowed to adopt and have part of our family.

I finally made our poor Korean doll some clothes. I made this doll a few months ago from the Joan Russell pattern for her world dolls. I bought the materials to make all the dolls in the series. Now to find the time. Hazel has been playing with her naked.

This book also has a series of Native American dolls which if I have time I would love to make. Hopefully I can make some this month since it is Native American Heritage Month.

When Hazel saw her clothes, she looked at me and said what should we name her. I explained to her the pattern calls her Soh Ni, but we decided to name her Kongi after the Korean Cinderella. We have been reading different versions of Cinderella which I will post about on another Monday. Hazel has loved them!

Now unrelated, I would like to share some of our nature turkeys we have made. Mine are on the right and Hazel's are on the left.

MemeTales Readathon Week 6: Global Culture

The books for this week are Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina Lazo Gilmore, Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth by Joan Schoettler, Mandy and Pandy Say "Ni Hao Ma?" by Chris Lin and Mandy and Pandy Visit China by Chris Lin.

The Mandy and Pandy stories are meant to introduce the child to Chinese and have both English and Chinse in them.I will admit I am not good at pronouncing the Chinese, but I did try. Cora Cooks Pancit is about a Filipino family and cooking a favorite meal. Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth takes place in Korea. Since they were all focused in Asia, we did Asian crafts.