Confucius Classroom at Riga 34 Middle School celebrates Spring Festival and perceives Chinese traditional culture of Spring Festival

From February 11th to 19th , local time, in order to celebrate the coming Chinese new year, Confucius Classroom at Riga 34 Middle School launched an online culture course with the theme of “Spring Festival”. All students in grades 5 to 10 of the school’s Chinese language learning class participated in the activity.

Shuang Niu, a volunteer Chinese teacher, used the question of “What will you do in the Spring Festival?” as leading-in, and the students had a heated discussion, which aroused their interest. Next, played a video about the introduction of the Spring Festival and the origin, customs and traditions of the Spring Festival, Latvian friends appreciated the long historical and cultural connotation behind the Spring Festival; the explanation of dumplings, Tangyuan and other Spring Festival food revealed the symbolic significance of the food culture of the Spring Festival to surpass the material and turn the material objects into beautiful expectations.

In addition, teacher Niu Shuang introduced the traditional customs of the Chinese Spring Festival, such as “cleaning dust, pasting Spring Festival couplets, making dumplings, New Year’s money, and paying New Year’s greetings”. And she made a comparison between Chinese and foreign New Year customs, enabling students to understand the traditional Chinese psychology and values, and found similarities between different cultures to promote positive interaction; she led students write the word “Fu” together, helping students understand the word “Fu”, which embodies people’s yearning for a happy life and their profound wishes for a better future.

In addition, Riga Secondary School 34 actively registered to participate in the first Latvian Confucius Institute Internet Spring Festival Gala. With the help of school music teachers Sevtlana Sibaeva and Evita, all students learning Chinese from grades 1 to 10 participated in the recording of the Internet Spring Festival Gala. They paid New Year’s greetings in Chinese and performed songs such as “Two Tigers”, “The Bug Flies”, “Grain in Ear”, “Jasmine Flower”, “Spring Dawn”, “Girls of Ali Mountain” and “Tomorrow Will Be Better”. The students showed their enthusiasm for learning Chinese. Welcome to the first Latvian Confucius Institute Internet Spring Festival Gala.

当地时间2月11日-2月19日，为庆祝即将到来的中国新年，里加34中学孔子课堂开展了以“春节”为主题线上文化课程，该校的5年级至10年级所有学习汉语的学生参加了本次活动。

汉语教师志愿者牛爽老师以“春节你会想做什么？”作为导入，激起了学生的兴趣，并展开热烈的讨论。接下来，通过播放一段春节简介的视频，对春节的起源、习俗以及传统进行介绍，让拉脱维亚的朋友领略到春节背后悠久的历史文化内涵；对饺子、元宵等春节食品进行解说，揭示了春节饮食文化超越物质、文化，为美好期盼的象征意义。

除此之外，牛爽老师重点介绍了“扫尘、贴春联、包饺子、压岁钱、拜年”这几个中国春节传统的习俗。并对中外新年的习俗进行了对比，使学生了解了中国人的传统心理和价值观念，从中发现了不同文化的相似之处，从而引起积极的互动；带领学生一起写“福”字，使学生了解“福”字寄托了人们对幸福生活的向往，对美好未来的祝愿的深刻内涵。

此外，里加34中学积极报名参加拉脱维亚孔子学院首届网络春晚，通过学校音乐老师Sevtlana Sibaeva和Evita的帮助下，一年级至十年级所有学汉语的学生都参与了此次网络春晚的录制。大家分别用中文拜年，表演了歌曲《两只老虎》、《虫儿飞》、《芒种》、《茉莉花》《友谊地久天长》、《春晓》、《阿里山的姑娘》、《明天会更好》。同学们展示了对学习汉语无限的热情，欢迎大家来观看拉脱维亚孔子学院首届网络春晚。