News / Nunn Road / 2005 / No.40 February 2005

Dear parents,

I enjoyed the Chinese New Year Festival very much with all of you and the children.  One child came to show me her Ang Pow and said excitedly, ‘Look! I got an Ang Pow and there is REAL MONEY inside.’  She added, ‘I will buy chocolate for you’.  I was touched by her offer.

Returning from Chinese New Year holiday, the children still carry the songs and music of the festival.  During creative play, one will start to hum the Kung Fu music and others will join in and do the movements.  Some will play drum and sing ‘dong dong dong qiang ’.

One of the banana trees in the front garden bore fruit during the Chinese New Year break. This is our first banana fruit at Nania.  The class had a study tour of the banana tree.  Many were amazed at the sight.  They have not seen a fruiting banana branch before.  The children were told the fruit fairy visited the tree and made it fruit.

Although we don’t have the four seasons in Malaysia, I am very much feeling a Spring mood. The weather is warm.  Trees on the roadside are in blossom.  In Nania’s garden, the ‘baby sun bird’ started to learn to fly.  The atmosphere is fill with joy.  Eight children from the Japanese class will graduate in March. It is also time for them to fly on. I wish them all the best.

Teacher Thian


Girl’s Day Celebration

We will celebrate the Japanese Girl’s Day Festival (Hinamatsuri) with the children on 3rdMarch. The dolls in traditional kimono displayed at the Festival corner are praying for the well being of girls.  The dolls are called hina-ningyo and the custom is also known as momo-no sekku (Peach Festival) because of the peach blossom season on the old lunar calendar.  In some areas, the old custom, nagashibina, of loading one’s troubles onto a paper doll and floating them off down the river is still practiced.

Most Japanese families with girls display hina-ningyo and dedicate peach blossoms to them. They are usually arranged on a five or seven-tiered stand covered with a red carpet.  At the top are the Emperor and Empress.  The next level sit three court ladies, followed by five musicians, two ministers, and three servants at the bottom row of a five-tiered display. Displays may include small pieces of furniture, meal dishes, and other things.  The hina-ningyo at Nania is hand made by a child’s mother.

The children have started folding paper dolls and make them into wall decorations.  They will bring home the wall decorations on the festival day.