Covid curtails Chinese New Year celebrations
Gong hei fat choy! Happy Lunar New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Tiger.
The Lunar New Year — the most important annual holiday in China — falls in February this year. People all over the world celebrate Chinese New Year. It is a time of great celebration, filled with fireworks, performance and symbolism.
Our Library celebrates Chinese New Year every year with cultural activities and delicious food. The highlight of the annual event is the Dragon and Lion Dance, intended to bring luck and prosperity, a sentiment that’s very important to Chinese people.
For many of us, this time of year is a time for finding joy in the planning and celebrating of various festivals and celebrations that bring families and friends together over the summer months.
With restrictions in place across New Zealand, it is safe to assume that this year’s celebrations will be different to previous years. Amid the disruption of Covid-19, our Chinese community living in New Zealand are turning to distant blessings and online gatherings with their extended families back home in order to celebrate the biggest cultural event of the year.
This holiday, like so many holidays in other cultures, is centred around food. Cooking is a great way to relax and learn about symbolic dishes and there are plenty of books in the library to help guide you. A whole fish symbolises prosperity, dumplings symbolise wealth along with noodles representing longevity.
Cleaning the house is symbolic of driving away the bad luck of the previous year to allow for a new start. By putting up Chinese New Year decorations around our home, it’s believed we attract all kinds of good vibes and blessings.
Our library catalogue holds many non-fiction books on Lunar New Year where you can learn more about the language and culture. Chinese literature is becoming more widely known and more writers than ever are being translated into English. Some authors of note to look out for are Jung Chang, Liu Cixin, Amy
Tan, Cixin Liu and the celebrated Mo Yan, who was the first Chinese author to win the Nobel Prize.
Many of the festivals throughout the year celebrate prosperity, hope and light — and it is important that we hold onto the meaning of these celebrations even more if we cannot mark them in the way we might have in the past.
We strive to represent the unique cultures of our community. All people want to feel that their cultural identity is valued, recognised and supported in all spaces. Our libraries provide the opportunity for us to celebrate the skills and knowledge each culture brings. Learning about different cultures brings major benefits to our young as they mature, and can have serious differentiating impacts on their future lives.
Celebrating cultural heritage not only can boost our sense of identity and belonging for our community, it sparks joy.
What’s On Exhibitions
● ‘Drawn With Light: Stories from the Family Camera’ by MAVtech and Jacob Brookie, February 5-28, Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po¯ Gallery Space.
● New Arts Collective Exhibition: Kotahi Tonu te Wairua o Nga Mea Katoa, until March 6, Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom.
Heritage room:
Volunteers staff the Heritage rooms at Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po¯ Tuesday to Saturday at the following times:
Tuesday, 10am-12.30pm; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10am-12.30pm and 1pm3pm; Saturday 10am-12.30pm Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom Heritage Room has the research librarian available all day every Friday.
Adult Reading Challenge Summer 2022:
Until February 25.
Do you want to broaden your reading horizons and discover new books, authors and genres?
How to join: Register online or at your local library. Choose books that match the categories on the inside of the booklet. Add the title of each book and its author into the square.
Write a review on one of your chosen books. Mark the book out of five stars then drop it off at your local library! Online registrations https:/ /www.tetakere.org.nz/Home Fridays, February 11 and 18 SeniorNet: Get help with your tablets, phones and laptops Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom 10am-noon
Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po¯ 2pm-4pm
Friday Concert: Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po¯ noon -2pm
JP Service
JP Services have cancelled their weekly sessions at Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po¯ , Shannon Library and Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom until further notice. Please inquire at the library desk for other options.
Library Programming and Events
We continue to monitor and adjust our services in line with the Covid-19 protection framework to do all we can to keep customers and our staff safe while in our libraries. To keep updated with our events and programming please check our: Website: https://www.tetakere. org.nz/Home
Social media: https://www. facebook.com/te.takere Phone: 06 368 1953 Email: info@horowhenua. govt.nz