Aspies For Freedom

I go to a clubhouse every now and then for people in the mental health system. They want to plan a Chinese New Year celebration and I was wondering if anyone could help me come up with good ideas for decorations, party favors, and maybe games? I all ready gave some ideas but I need more!

I suppose dragon decorations have already been suggested? You could have pin the wing on the dragon or a paper lantern making competition.

Go to the joke shop and get a lot of rubber rats!

Print out a chart (or will you have access to a computer in the clubhouse during the celebrations?) so that people can find out what their Chinese horoscope animal is.

Are you anywhere near a 'China town'?  They'll usually have shops that sell lanterns and things.

Also, Chinese usually put poster thingies by their doors.  I can't remember what they are supposed to be for.  I think they are either supposed to bring good luck, or ward off bad luck, I can't remember which.

If you can get some red paper, you could get people to make paper cuts, which is a traditional Chinese craft.  Check out these images:  http://images.google.com.qa/images?hl=en...cuts&gbv=2

A lot of Chinese paper cuts are fairly intricate and complex, but you could try to make them simple.  Maybe people can make a paper cut of their Chinese horoscope animal sign?  Try Googling for some ideas and pictures for that.  There are twelve animal signs.

For children, there is also a traditional of giving 'hong bao' (pronounced hong - bow, bow like take a bow, bow down...) -- a red envelope -- with some money inside.  Chinese are quite superstitious generally speaking.  They don't like the number four because "Si" = 4 in Chinese and that sounds a bit like "death".  So don't put multiples of four in the envelope.  However, Eight = "Ba" and that sounds like "luck" or "prosperity" or something like that (I forget which, Google if you want to double check), and also the number nine = "jiao" (jow rhymes with bow, as in take a bow, bow down) means something like longevity (again, double check via Google) so Chinese think the numbers 8 and 9 are auspicious numbers, so they will give children hong bao/red envelope with money with multiples of eight.  

Obviously relatives might give a lot of money to their children, but just for novelty purposes, you could put 8 pennies or 9 pennies (or 8 x 10p = 80p or 9 x 10p = 90p) or whatever in some red envelopes and explain to them the significance of 8 and 9 (good) and 4 (bad) in Chinese superstitious terms.  If you live near a China Town, you should be able to find a store that sells hong bao/red envelopes.

Oh, they also give... erm... let me check... I think it's mandarin oranges or peaches or something, because that 'sounds lucky' too... I'll get back to you...

In some areas of China it's a popular custom to give oranges because in Chinese, the word "orange" sounds like "Ji", which means "good luck". People present oranges to their friends and relatives to express their respects and good wishes for the coming year.

Cantonese families visit each other to exchange New Year greetings it is customary to take gifts such as tangerines and oranges, as their Chinese names sound like "gold" and "wealth".

You can also teach them to say happy new year to one another.

In Mandarin Chinese it is: xin nian kuai le (sounds like: shin nyan kwhy le) kuai is like saying the word "why", just add a k sound in front of it, kwhy.  le is pronounced like the french definite articles le and la.  Just "le".

Erm, that's it, that's all I can think of at the moment.

Oh, in China, at the street fairs they used to sell candy fruit.  A bit like toffee apples, but a kebab stick with strawberries, slices of mandarin orange, hawberries, grapes, chunk of banana and so on, candied, but that might be quite consuming to make, and also you have to have a sugar thermometer and be careful not to get burned with liquid sugar syrup, so it can be quite dangerous unless you know what you're doing in a kitchen.

Maybe you can tell, China and all things Chinese is one of my favourite subjects.