Chinese New Year 2020 - The Year of the Rat

2020 is the Year of the Rat for Chinese New Year.

There's a free coloring page by Teachers Pay Teachers with a fun design to color, decorate, or embellish. The pin on Pinterest leads to the website where you can get the free download.

Another pin that leads to the Kitchn has some ideas for lucky foods to eat on Chinese New Year:

“Jiao Zi” or Chinese Dumplings
Because they are shaped like ancient gold or silver ingots, dumplings are believed to symbolize wealth and prosperity. They are typically served right at midnight and for breakfast the following morning. A coin is sometimes hidden in one of the dumplings, and the person who finds or bites the coin will be the luckiest one in the upcoming year.

Rice
Rice in and of itself is considered to be a lucky food, as it is associated with fertility and prosperity, but “nian gao” (or glutinous rice) is especially fortuitous.

Literally translating as “high cake,” this dessert symbolizes achieving new heights in the coming year.

Whole Foods 

To ensure a good start and finish in the New Year, it’s important to indulge in “whole” foods. For example, “yu” or whole fish, ensures wholeness in the coming year, while long, uncut noodles bode a life of longevity.

Citrus

Displaying and eating tangerines and oranges is said to bring wealth and luck. This belief stems not only from the bright, gold-like color, but also due to the words themselves. The word for tangerines in Chinese sounds similar to the word for “luck,” while the word for orange sounds similar to that of the word for “wealth.”

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A simple coloring page for the refrigerator has the image of a rat as well as the English and Chinese words for Happy Chinese New Year. The pin on Pinterest leads to a Google Drive with a variety of images to choose from for coloring.

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This year for Chinese New Year, Olivia got her ears pierced. Originally she was going to have them pierced on her birthday (on the 18th), but when we went to the tattoo/piercing shop we were told that youth under 18 years old need a birth certificate and then one of the parents needs to present a driver's license that matches the name on the birth certificate. This was no where on the shop's website, so we had to do the piercings another day.

Sophia also got her ears pierced. She wanted to have a second earring (double piercing) in each ear for a long time.

We thought that it would be good to have both the girls share an experience like this on a special holiday - Chinese New Year. It's something they can look back upon and have a good memory about.

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We went out to eat after that at a restaurant on the University of Minnesota campus.

The egg rolls were super hot - right out of the oil for deep frying.

Olivia ordered cheese wontons - something she enjoys having whenever we go to a Chinese restaurant.

The portions were very generous and we had several days worth of meals in the days following Chinese New Year.

All the food we ordered was delicious and we would go back again to try some more of the food.

It was a fun Chinese New Year this year!