Celebrating the Year of the Dragon

While most of the Western world passed into the New Year on January 1st, their Eastern counterparts have only just rolled to the cusp of the transition. Because the Chinese calendar follows the delicate phases of the moon, this year’s Chinese New Year occured on Sunday January 23rd – the Year of the Dragon. For the Chinese, every year is assigned to one of the twelve animals on the Chinese zodiac. Of all of the sprightly creatures, the dragon – a symbol of intense power and good fortune - is one of the most impressive, and it is said that those who are born in the Dragon years are deeply honored and respected by others. As Katie Z and the SAC’s engaging performance at this Thursday’s assembly informed us, Chinese New Year is a celebration based on an old Chinese tale, in which a Chinese village sparked fire crackers and wore red in order to scare off a very threatening monster. Naturally, this particular acting role was assigned to Mr. Garvey, Deputy Head of School.   As well as donning red and gold and gathering Chinese red packets, one of the most important traditions of Chinese New Year is the celebration of a meal with your family. For most students in Brentwood who celebrate Chinese New Year, however, their families are half the world away. I was prepared, as I have been for the last three years, to celebrate Chinese New Year by clutching onto my cellular device at an outrageous hour because of that oh-so-trivial fifteen hour time difference between Mill Bay and Hong Kong, trying to decipher the chatter of my family through the pesky static that comes with making an international call. Yet, the Year of the Dragon was far too impressive to be greeted in such wistful, nostalgic fashion. With the excellent decision to incorporate Mandarin classes to Brentwood’s academic curriculum has come the addition of Ms. Fang Sun. Her integration into Brentwood’s talented faculty has been deeply appreciated by those who take her Mandarin courses; watching her single-handedly expand the exposure of the Chinese culture on campus has been as impressive as it is inspiring. She invited all of her students for a Dim Sum lunch on Sunday in Victoria – a sparkling jewel of an opportunity to drift briefly from the Brentwood bubble to chow down on some authentic Chinese cuisine.   And that wasn’t the end of the Chinese celebration! To continue spreading the celebration, Ms. Sun took her students with her to assist in teaching the adorable grade ones and twos on Monday afternoon at Cowichan’s Bench Elementary School about Chinese New Year traditions. Within an hour, the children had crafted imitations of red and green firecrackers with glue and colored paper, learned the Chinese character for ‘spring’ and ‘double happiness’, sung along to a song written in Mandarin, and received traditional Red Packets full of candy and chocolate. The celebrations came to an elegant close with the SAC’s delicious Chinese New Year dinner at Crooks Hall on Monday night. Decorated with splendid golden fans and decorative parasols, and the generous array of spring rolls, barbeque pork buns, fried rice and Chinese vegetables were nothing short of fantastic, and almost all were consumed. We are, as a school, greatly indebted to the fantastic kitchen staff, Katie Z and SAC, and finally, Ms. Sun, for co-coordinating such a brilliant start to the Year of the Dragon. Cherrie K


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Cherrie K and Ms. Sun