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Celebrate Lunar New Year with Noggin!

What is the Lunar New Year?

While sometimes called Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year is actually celebrated all throughout the world by people of different cultures. In fact, more than 20% of the world’s population (that’s more than 1.5 billion people!) celebrate this festive holiday.

Learn More with Noggin!

Celebrate and learn more about the Lunar New Year with Noggin.

Resource

What is Lunar New Year?

While sometimes called Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year is celebrated all throughout the world by people of different cultures.

Tales from the Playground

Katheryn's Lunar New Year Celebration

Things go badly for Katheryn on a special day – her parents' Lunar New Year celebration. But luckily friends helping a friend also helps the community!

Ni Hao, Kai-lan: Episode 11

Happy Chinese New Year!

It’s Chinese New Year, which means a big feast, red envelopes, and friends and family all together! Kai-lan and her friends are thrilled because this year, they are old enough to carry the huge dragon costume.

Family Learning Activities

Whether it’s your family tradition or you’re celebrating for the first time, bring the Lunar New Year festivities at home with family-fun activities.

Activity

Lantern Craft Activity

Celebrate Lunar New Year at home by making a lantern with your child following these easy steps!

Printable

2024 Lunar New Year Color By Numbers

2024 is the year of the dragon! Help your child color in this fiercely cute creature using the color key.

Printable

Lunar New Year Search & Count

2023 was the Year of the Rabbit! Help your child color and count all the carrots in the scene.

Printable

Lunar New Year Color By Numbers

2022 was the Year of the Tiger! Help your child color in this fiercely cute creature.

Traditions from the Noggin Team!

"One of my favorite traditions is to put a red envelope under my 3-year-old's pillow on Lunar New Year's Eve. We call it "stacking our luck" for the New Year in Chinese. He thinks it's so funny! I also love taking my kids to watch the Lion Dances in Chinatown. They're so festive, full of energy and a feeling of tradition. My kids love popping confetti and then dancing around in it."
Winnie Cheung
"Pre-COVID my family would make a reservation at a restaurant months in advance and invite friends that don’t typically celebrate Lunar New Year to join us for a giant feast. We’d usually order roast suckling pig, lots of seafood, noodles and so much more! Looking forward to when we can eventually safely do this again."
Ava Wang
"My family has a huge home cook meal and invite both maternal and paternal grandparents so we have everyone altogether. We'll also pay respect to ancestors by doing a small ceremony - burning 3 incenses in the house and bowing towards it. We also all wear a new clothing item (something as small as socks count!), and get a haircut a few days prior to Lunar New Year."
Joanna Chak
"My family makes dumplings from scratch and dumpling soup with rice cake in it"
Jae Kwon
"We light firecrackers from the house starting at midnight to bring in the Lunar New Year. We avoid working, washing our hair, or taking out the trash, which superstitions say bring bad luck. We also go to temple and show respect to our ancestors with offerings, like cooking their favorite food, and lighting incense."
Trang Vo
"We follow a few traditions, like a hot pot dinner to celebrate with noodles for longevity and dumplings for prosperity. We do a thorough cleaning before Lunar New Year, and on the actual day, we avoid superstitions, such as not cleaning the house or washing hair, which supposedly sweeps or washes away good luck."
Robyn Tang
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"One of my favorite traditions is to put a red envelope under my 3-year-old's pillow on Lunar New Year's Eve. We call it "stacking our luck" for the New Year in Chinese. He thinks it's so funny! I also love taking my kids to watch the Lion Dances in Chinatown. They're so festive, full of energy and a feeling of tradition. My kids love popping confetti and then dancing around in it."
Winnie Cheung
"Pre-COVID my family would make a reservation at a restaurant months in advance and invite friends that don’t typically celebrate Lunar New Year to join us for a giant feast. We’d usually order roast suckling pig, lots of seafood, noodles and so much more! Looking forward to when we can eventually safely do this again."
Ava Wang
"My family has a huge home cook meal and invite both maternal and paternal grandparents so we have everyone altogether. We'll also pay respect to ancestors by doing a small ceremony - burning 3 incenses in the house and bowing towards it. We also all wear a new clothing item (something as small as socks count!), and get a haircut a few days prior to Lunar New Year."
Joanna Chak
"My family makes dumplings from scratch and dumpling soup with rice cake in it."
Jae Kwon
"We light firecrackers from the house starting at midnight to bring in the Lunar New Year. We avoid working, washing our hair, or taking out the trash, which superstitions say bring bad luck. We also go to temple and show respect to our ancestors with offerings, like cooking their favorite food, and lighting incense."
Trang Vo
"We follow a few traditions, like a hot pot dinner to celebrate with noodles for longevity and dumplings for prosperity. We do a thorough cleaning before Lunar New Year, and on the actual day, we avoid superstitions, such as not cleaning the house or washing hair, which supposedly sweeps or washes away good luck."
Robyn Tang

Give Noggin a Try

Kid-safe & ad-free

Accessible on multiple devices

New content added weekly

Downloadable books & games for offline play

Kid-safe & ad-free

New content added weekly

Accessible on multiple devices

Downloadable books & games for offline play

About Ailey

Since its first historic performance in 1958, Ailey has been innovating and evolving the perception of American modern dance throughout the world. Noggin is honored to partner with them in helping kids all over get up moving, learning, and expressing their feelings through dance. Because movement has meaning when we dance how we’re feeling!