Next week our planet will be a blaze of color and light as people all over the world celebrate Chinese, or Lunar, New Year on January 26.

My son and I had fun looking at moon phases on the calendar to figure out when Chinese New Year might be this year: usually the second new moon after the winter solstice (sometime between Dec. 19 and 22). We talked a lot about how the sun is better for tracking time in days, but the moon probably was better at tracking time in months before paper calendars were widely available.
We also had fun talking about transitioning to the the Year of the Ox. We looked at what years we were born in (like a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, he decided his Tiger beat my Rat even if it is still my year), and made some predictions about what might happen this year.

The most exciting thing for my son is the importance dragons play in Chinese New Year. YouTube has a great selection of Dragon Dances to watch.

And we made our own dragons! This craft is easy and can be easily tailored to many different age groups. All you need are some empty egg cartons, string and paint.

Want more dragons? We’ve got toys, books and more to bring luck and fun in the coming year.