Chinese New Year

It’s the year of the rooster. Some believe that anyone born in the year of the rooster is beautiful, kind, hardworking, courageous and independent. Such a person also cares about being punctual because the rooster is a bird which wakes people on time.

The Chinese New Year starts today and finishes with the lantern festival on the 15th day after the New Year. The beginning of the New Year is a family time, and a time for children to receive a red envelope with money for a good future. The new year is called the Spring Festival.

Many cities in New Zealand have planned celebrations including lion dances, fireworks and food festivals.

New Zealand has more than 90,000 Chinese people who were born in China; however, we also have about twice as many who are ethnic Chinese from countries like Malaysia and Singapore. 70% of these people live in Auckland.

Many other Asian cultures celebrate the lunar New Year at this time too. It’s a time for families to be together and that must be very hard for immigrants to New Zealand who are far away from their families.

Tourism New Zealand says that we should expect around 33,000 tourists in the next two weeks from China. Accommodation, transport and popular tourist attractions are heavily booked.

Vocabulary extension

Look at the adjectives connected with the year of the rooster and see if you know the noun. E.g. X is known for his/her … Use your dictionary to check. There is no noun for hard-working. You would say ‘He or she is a hard worker’.

Sentence structure

Can you use the structure: twice as many, three times as many etc? For a non-countable noun, the structure is: twice as much e.g. X earns twice as much (money) as Y.

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