Lunar New Year Celebrations at Christchurch City Libraries – 20 to 22 February 2015

The Year of the Sheep begins on Thursday 19 February 2015. Find out about the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations which are taking place at Christchurch City Libraries this year.

Where and when

• Friday, February 20, 2015 at Fendalton Library – 3pm to 5pm
• Saturday, February 21, 2015 at Upper Riccarton Library – 10.45am to 3.30pm
• Sunday, February 22, 2015 at Central Library Peterborough – 10.30am to 2pm

Performances

Performances will include (in no particular order):

• Chinese Lion Dance (Qiao Yi Lion Dance Team Christchurch)
• Japanese Drum (Canterbury Japanese Drum Group TAKUMI)
• Chinese traditional instruments, dance and songs (Christchurch Fellowship of Song, Dance and Drama; Christchurch Zhong Hua Chinese Society; Elder Fitness Group)
• Traditional instruments – Yaogu (percussion musical instrument), Erhu (two stringed fiddle), Guzheng (Chinese plucked zither), Hulusi (free reed wind instrument), Flute
• Chinese Kung Fu sword
• Mexican dance (Mexican community)
• Blue and White Porcelain Dance (Christchurch Fellowship of Song, Dance and Drama)
• New Year story telling

The Qiao Yi Lion Dance Team dragon at Upper Riccarton Library , January 2012,
Flickr, CCL-2012-01-23-UpperRiccartonLibrary

Family fun craft sessions and activities

• Face painting
• Māori feather cloak making using paper
• Tea ceremony
• Lantern making
• Dough sculpture
• Chinese zodiac animals

Learn more about Chinese New Year and our Chinese language resources.

What do Hollywood and libraries have in common?

You may not think there is a lot in common between a library and Hollywood.  We may not be as glamorous as the likes of Angelina Jolie or Jamie Dornan, but where would they be without Unbroken and 50 shades of grey?

However it isn’t just books that we have in common, it is our need to keep up with The Next Big Thing, and nothing typifies this more than and diet and exercise industry. You may have just come to grips with the low-fat ideology which has spawned the likes of low-fat bacon for goodness sake, only to now be told now that butter is good!

Paleo is still huge and cavemen everywhere must be beating their clubs with glee as there seems to be a never-ending plethora of books published in this area. Fasting is also popular although having holidayed with someone when they were on their fasting days was a pretty unpleasant experience, and one I don’t wish to repeat. Of course you can also use this time to detox using juices and smoothies, or you could munch your way a plate of raw food. It would seem that actually cooking food is akin to devil worship in some circles!

Exercise has also gone through a variety of Metamorphoses over the years. Jane Fonda feeling the burn has now been replaced by so-called gyms or  “boxes” where you push around tires and lift heavy chains. Perhaps all that paleo has indeed turned us into cavemen/women?

HIIT is  also big, High Intensity Interval training … gone are the days of slogging it out on the treadmill for hours on end. It’s all fast and intense now, perhaps better for the time hungry?

Craft is another area that is trend focused.  Fancy a bit of scrapbooking/mosaic/ beading? Well actually no, now it is all about quilting, knitting and a side of crochet, and if you branch out into the vintage aspect of things all the better.

You may have thought hacking involved some sort of illegal action with computers, however now we have life hacks: Any Procedure or Action That Solves a Problem, Simplifies a Task, Reduces Frustration, Etc. in One’s Everyday Life.

This has been big on social media so we should expect more books on this subject in the next while.