New year Celebrations

New Year Celebrations

L.I: Different cultures celebrate in different ways but we all celebrate for the same reasons.

	Information about the New Year Celebration: Name: Date Reason for celebrating How it is celebrated Costume
	Turkey New Year is one of the most important celebration in Turkey. It starts with a large family dinner. The Main course is a roasted turkey.Many people play games until the clock strikes midnight. Turkey New year doesn’t allow people a day off.They allow half a day off. Hotels, Restaurants, and Nightclubs offer a special entertainment programme on New Year’s eve.They light up fireworks too.
	Chinese new year is an important chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the Chinese . In China it is also called the “ Spring festival”. They have dances like the lion dance and the dragon dance. The difference is that a lion is shorter and has less people in it, but the dragon has a lot of people and is very long.This celebration is in February 19th. People buy decorations, food and lots more before New years eve ( China ).
	Diwali can sometimes be called Divali, but either way it is the same. It is in October or November . Diwali is celebrated mostly by the Indians. It is an ancient  hindu festival that is very important, it celebrates the new year.It is also known as the “ Festival of lights “. The festival of lights is honoured by Lakshmi the goddess of wealth and prosperity. People who celebrate pray to her to bring good luck in the coming year. They celebrate by cleaning their offices and homes, they buy new clothing and suits, they light up Diyas ( lamps and candles ), they draw designs on their mats with rang ( coloured powder ) and make traditional sweets.It is also Lakshmi’s birthday.

What other celebrations do we have in New Zealand? How do the different cultures celebrate?

Celebration	Information about the celebration
Turkey New year	In NZ, they do not celebrate Turkey New Year.
Chinese new year	In NZ, Chinese restaurants offer a lion dance or dragon dance.
Diwali	In NZ, people will take the day off and go to their homes. They will make traditional sweets then, do a prayer, light up candles then they light the fireworks.
All	The Similarities are that all of these celebrations include light or candles.

What did you learn?

I learnt that Indians also have gods and the gods can be woman.

I learnt that Chinese dragon is very long and the Chinese lion is very short.

I learnt that Turkey New Year you can only take half a day off.