Ningbo Huamao Foreign Language School News
In terms of the junior high school, our focus value for this semester is “Gratitude”. To commemorate this theme, we held two events “Chong Yang Festival Being Along With My Grandparents” and “Thanksgiving—Chocolate-making Day” in October and November respectively.
The “Chong Yang Festival” is a traditional Chinese festival. In ancient times, descendants had to climb up the mountains or hills to pray for blessings, offering sacrifices to ancestors, and organize feasting for longevity. Nowadays, it has derived into respecting and being grateful to the elderly. Therefore, our junior high school students invited their grandparents to the school. They performed the drama show, and made dumplings with their lovely grandparents together. Plus, the students also spontaneously went to the nursing home on this day, singing, dancing, and giving beautiful flowers for the elderly. Through these activities, the students gradually felt the essence of family affection and, understood more about how to care and express their love to the elderly.
As for Thanksgiving Day, we firstly compared it with the before-mentioned “Chong Yang Festival” from the origin, customs, and cultural inheritance in order to expand students’ perspectives and let them know more about cultural differences. Then we organized an amazing chocolate-making activity. With the help of pastry chefs, every student finally made their own unique chocolates for their lovely peers and teachers. The rationale for organizing this activity was not merely about cultivating students’ learning or practical skills, but more essentially, we aimed to our students to know that the festival itself could contain similar connotations in spite of diverse culture backgrounds, for example, both Chong Yang Festival and Thanksgiving delivered the love and gratitude, which are essential in our lives.
