LESSON 3: CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS
Reading Comprehension
Make a list on the board including the following categories:
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cambodian
and
Individual Cultures
.
Give students 10 minutes to review the chapters and take notes regarding the cultural celebrations that were discussed. Ask
students about the customs they learned about in Chapters 1–3, and write down their answers.
Chinese
• Children are given pieces of candy as soon as they wake up on New Year’s Day so they have sweet things to say in the
New Year.
• Along with delicious food and sweet pastries, the New Year is ushered in with lucky money in red envelopes for children,
putting on new clothes and making sure the house is clean.
• The Lion dance is performed to bring prosperity to area businesses.
• Keeping the family close, respecting your elders and being very community minded are very important.
Japanese
• Prepare and pound mochi.
• Go to temple and hear the bell toll 108 times on New Year’s Eve.
• Prepare flower arrangements and special foods.
• Send family and friends postcards (similar to Christmas cards) for the New Year.
Korean
• It is important to spend the New Year together as a family, even if you have to travel a long way.
• Some families dress up by wearing their “Seolbim,” which is specially prepared clothing for Sol.
• Play games like yut nori or perform sebae. For the sebae tradition, the elders sit in front of the room, cross-legged, while
children kneel on the floor, bow and say a phrase that means, “In the New Year, I hope you receive lots of blessings and
good luck.” When finished, the children receive money and can travel to many homes, and make more money with
each stop.
Cambodian
• Offerings are made to ancestors and gods (a tray of food, candles, incense and drinks like soda pop are put out, and
sometimes flowers and make-up depending on whether it is a male or female god).
• Attend temple.
• Monks chant, food is prepared, traditional dancing, a show, court dancing and folk dancing take place.
• In the old Cambodian culture, games like tug-of-war are played. A game called “ongounge” (sometimes spelled
“angkunh”) is also played that is similar to bowling, where seeds are used to knock down other seeds set up on
a mound of dirt. Typically the teams are made up of boys against girls.
Individual Cultures
• What cultures are represented in class?
• Ask students what traditions they celebrate in their own families.
• Will they continue these traditions when they have a family of their own?
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