CITCM Partner Schools Celebrate the Year of the Horse
As the world has been ushered in the Year of the Horse in the Chinese lunar calendar, every partner school of the Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine (CITCM) has been busy.They marked the festive season with a wonderful range of celebratory activities. Through creative workshops, entertaining games and cultural performances, pupils have explored a wide range of customary activities of the Spring Festival and experience the richness of Chinese language and culture. Here are just a few examples.
Rosetta Primary School: pupils took part in a series of thematic activities. They tested their knowledge in a Spring Festival quiz, created imaginative Year of the Horse artwork using straw painting techniques, and tried traditional rubbings of the character fu (福, “good fortune”).
Hugh Myddelton Primary School: a lively Lunar New Year fair was staged, where children enjoyed a variety of festive activities, including touhu (pitch-pot), rubbing of designed patterns in relation to the Year of the Horse, lantern making, calligraphic exercises, shuttlecock kicking, and chopstick-using challenges.
Monega Primary School: the celebrations brought together poetry recitals, guzheng performances, taiji practices, choir singing, a Chinese New Year quiz, and an exhibition of pupils' artwork and crafts in relation to the festive season.
Ravenscroft Primary School: pupils learnt to sing Chinese New Year songs and other folk tunes before taking part in a range of creative craft activities. They made paper trees decorated with horse images and horse-related patterns, and they practised calligraphic writing the Chinese character ma (马, "horse"), eventually forming a colourful wall of “horses”. They also explored paper-cutting for window decorations and Lantern Festival greeting cards.
Selwyn Primary School: children made charming rocking horse dolls and colourful lanterns, and explored traditional crafts of paper cutting and bamboo weaving.
Cleves Primary School: pupils designed their own personalised Year of the Horse blessing stickers, injecting their individual preferences into the customary ways of New Year greetings.
New City Primary School: teachers and pupils worked together to create a standing horse made of bright red boxes, each box being decorated with drawings and writings that carry heartfelt New Year wishes for happiness and good fortune.
West Green Primary School: classrooms were decorated with traditional Spring Festival couplets, creating a festive atmosphere throughout the school. Pupils in Years 4 and 5 also had the opportunity to experience the traditional art of woodblock printing.
Portway Primary School: pupils enjoyed practising Chinese calligraphy by writing the character fu (福), signifying good fortune. Together with their Chinese teacher, they also decorated the Chinese classroom, filling it with festive colour and New Year spirit.
These diverse events not only celebrated the Year of the Horse but also provided pupils with meaningful opportunities to engage with Chinese traditions, develop their cross-cultural knowledge, and share the festive joy with their school communities and their families.