BCHS welcomes Year of the Pig

IT was all about the pigs at Buckie Community High School last Tuesday when a bit of a party got under way. However, the school was not flooded with the pink providers of bacon, much to the relief, no doubt of cleaning staff, it was rather the time for students to celebrate the Chinese new year heralding the onset of the Year of the Pig. Appropriately enough, the school’s modern languages department led the way when it came to the very varied programme of festivities. PT modern languages Catherine Eadon told the Advertiser: “Around 180 S1 and S2 pupils in all were involved in a range of activities to celebrate Chinese New Year. “They were involved in doing some Chinese writing, tasting Chinese food such as rice cakes and caramel sunflower seeds and doing Chinese Jianzi kicking exercises with shuttlecocks. “It day went very well and was good fun.” The Jianzi kicking exercises required some space to be made in class as students attempted to keep the brightly coloured shuttlecocks aloft. An additional benefit of the this cross-cultural exercise was a fitness boost for the participants The festival surrounding Chinese New Year runs from February 5 – when BCHS pupils had their celebrations – to February 19. While many feel the new year holidays in the UK can go on a bit, as an official public holiday, Chinese people can get seven days’ absence from work, from February 4-10.
Traditionally Chinese New Year is a time for families to be together. Wherever they are, people are expected to be home to celebrate the festival with their families. The new year’s eve dinner is called ‘reunion dinner’, and is believed to be the most important meal of the year. Similar to people in Scotland waiting up to see in the bells, Chinese people have the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year’s arrival.