Chinese New Year is also known as Spring Festival in China and falls on Saturday, January 28th this year. It is the year of the Rooster and Chinese families will be gathering on New Year’s Eve to eat dinner together and to clean their homes to sweep away bad fortune before New Year’s Day.
Chinese children love this celebration and are excited to receive red envelopes which are stuffed with “lucky money” and well wishes from their loved ones on New Year’s Day. Due to modern technology, some teens even have apps on their smartphones to receive their “lucky money” electronically which demonstrates how even this ancient tradition has caught up with modern times.
Since this is the most important traditional holiday in China and signals the start of spring there, it is a public holiday in mainland China for seven days from Chinese New Year’s Eve to day 6 of the lunar calendar new year (January 27 – February 2, 2017).
One fun way to celebrate this important time is to create Chinese New Year Brooms to sweep the bad luck away. It’s the perfect opportunity to discuss the significance of the holiday with kids and to get a little creative at the same time!
Chinese New Year Broom Craft
Supplies needed:
Assorted wood craft sticks
Red craft paint
Gold or yellow craft paper
Scissors
Glue
Directions:
1. Begin by applying two coats of red paint to the craft sticks. Allow to dry.
2. Cut the yellow paper into wide strips. Fringe the edges with your scissors so it looks like broom bristles.
3. Wrap the fringed paper around the craft stick. Add a dab of glue to secure it into place. Hold it in place until it is nice and secure.
4. Your Chinese New Year broom craft can now be used to sweep the bad luck away!
Let’s Discuss: What are some traditions that you celebrate to start the new year off right?
© 2017, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.
We always eat black eyed peas and cornbread. We also have coins to give to any visiting children. We always say a special prayer of Thanksgiving, too.
This is a cool quick craft! My girls would really love to do something like this, and this year is my eldest daughter’s year of the rooster!
I love this tradition of sweeping the bad things away in preparation for the new year. It’s great symbolism and what a fantastic craft idea to celebrate!
I am Latina and we also believe in cleaning out our homes before the new year arrives. Last year it took me 4 days to clean up.
What a fun a creative craft to do with the kids. Our tradition is to make fondue on New Year’s Eve.
Oh I love this! We always celebrate by making lo mein and getting a box of fortune cookies- I’ll add this craft to our activities!
This craft is so good and easy. It looks so cute. Loved it!!
The Chinese has a lot of traditions for getting rid of bad luck. There’s nothing wrong with emulating some of them. Who doesn’t want to get rid of bad luck, right? Nice idea for a broom sweeper. Easy to do and to follow the instructions.
This is such a simple and interesting idea! My daughters don’t know a lot about Chinese New Year. This would be a great way to teach them!
Haha I don’t mind any holiday that gives out money (: hehe that’s a shame they’re using technology for the holidays tho, I like it to be traditional still.
These are really cute. We don’t celebrate Chinese New Year, but this would be a great craft in our homeschool lessons when we discuss foreign holidays.
I love this craft! We celebrate Chinese New Year with a new craft every year. Will have to try this one. We also love reading the book Lin Yi’s Lantern (Barefoot books).
This is so fun! I have little ones that would love doing this craft and it would be fun to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great craft! Simple and staightforward but effective. As a teacher of 3 and 4 year olds I would really like to do this with my class 🙂
What a fun craft! Your so creative and have a good talent with that I love this Idea for Chinese New Year.
Oh this would be so much fun to make. And it’d make a great gift for my momma who loves red.
I love doing crafts with my little sister. This one is so cute but simple so I’m thinking to try it with her. 🙂
Omg how cute are these brooms?!?! They look easy to make too which is great! Might have to make them with my daughter.
This craft is adorable and unique! I love it! Posts like these make me excited for when I have little ones! <3
I always had a tough time finding suitable craft projects for this holiday while teaching early childhood! This one would have been great!
I’ve always been so fascinated by the Chinese New Year and its history. I wouldn’t mind a red envelope filled with “lucky money,” hehe.
I love the tradition of the brooms sweeping the bad luck away. I may introduce this to my kids because we talk about New Year’s traditions around the world.