Tales of the Chinese New Year

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Tales of the Chinese New Year

• Our Lady of Peace School
• Columbus, Ohio
• USA
• February, 2008

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Yiling Tien came to Our Lady of Peace to tell us
some tales surrounding the Chinese New Year. She
met in small groups with all of the children from
kindergarten through grade eight. She told us
the tales in dramatic fashion using many visual
aids, music and audience participation!
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The first tale she told us was the Tale of the
Three Spirits. She taught all of us how to count
to three in Chinese. Most of us already knew how
to count even higher!
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Late in the tale the Jade Emperor told the three
spirits to write the names of the wicked people
on their walls. While doing so, the Kitchen God
overheard them and figured out a plan. He told
the people to prepare for the New Year as usual,
while he was up in the clouds giving his own
report to the Jade Emperor. He told them to
especially wash their walls! The people obeyed,
and when the Jade Emperor's army arrived to
punish them and looked for names on the walls,
not a single name could be found anywhere written
on anyone's walls! Of course the people were
spared of any punishment!
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The Tanggua Candy and the Kitchen God

• Zao Jun got the people into trouble himself.
  He would always leave a week before New Year's
  Day to give his report. This time he was trying
  to give an especially good report. The people
  had learned to make handmade shoes using rice
  glue. He told the Jade Emperor all of the good
  things they had done, but when he said, ....and
  they walk on shoes of rice glue, the Jade
  Emperor became especially angry! Rice was one of
  his most precious gifts to the people! "I'll not
  have them doing that! I told them neither to
  waste food, nor trample (squishy, squishy) on the
  rice I've given them as a gift, to keep them from
  going hungry!" He punished the people that year
  with horrible weather, and after a year of
  suffering, the people were fed up with Zao Jun.
  Just before he left at the end of this horrible
  year, they made a plateful of sticky, melon
  shaped candies called 'tanggua', and placed it on
  his altar. He loved the candies so much that he
  stuffed as many as possible into his mouth at
  once, and his teeth were completely stuck
  together so he couldn't say anything to answer
  the Jade Emperor's questions. He had to nod and
  smile. The Jade Emperor asked if the people put
  his picture up on their wall and bowed to it, if
  they worked hard, took good care of their old
  parents, grandparents, and small children, and
  didn't waste food or eat too much! Zao Jun
  nodded and smiled to each one of the questions.
  That year was a good one for the people, and they
  continued to make tanggua candy and place them as
  an offering on Zao Jun's altar each year, so he
  couldn't get them into trouble, even by accident!

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The Lion and Dragon Dances

• Once there was a 9-headed, vicious flying
  reptile. He flew throughout China, devouring
  whole sheep and cows, and, while flying overhead,
  would drop down huge globs of vicious slime.
  This vicious slime would burn holes in the
  ground, collapse buildings, and cause animals and
  people to die horribly. Only in the water were
  the people safe.
• The God of Fire felt sorry for the people,
  transforming himself into a wise old man and
  journeying to the village square. He instructed
  the people The monster is only afraid of the
  lion, and the dragon. You must make huge puppets
  of the lion and dragon, and make them dance and
  parade about to the music of drums, chimes, and
  cymbals. This must continue without stopping,
  even at night, when you should light them up with
  a parade of lanterns. Thus, the monster will be
  hungry and circle about, but will not dare to
  land. The rest of you can take to the lake in
  boats so you will be safe from the vicious
  slime.
• It happened just as the God of Fire said.
  The monster circled about, died of hunger in the
  air, and fell to the ground with a huge noise.
  The day that it fell down just happened to be the
  15th day after the New Year, and ever since then,
  on the 15th and first full moon of the first
  month of the New Year, the lion and dragon come
  out again to dance to the Lantern Festival
  Parade. And, there will also be a young woman
  who seems to be floating along in a boat (she has
  a boat costume, an oar, and underneath the boat
  is a light blue skirt to look like water) because
  the village people took to the water in boats to
  be safe from the vicious slime.