Tales of the Chinese New Year

Our Lady of Peace School

Columbus, Ohio

USA

February, 2008

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.