This weekend, as he does every year, J will be decorating our home for Lunar New Year with various Chinese paper cutouts and prints which are meant to ward off bad spirits and bring good fortune to the household in the new year.
For those who may be unfamiliar with Chinese culture, the Lunar New Year is a BIG deal in China. Workers usually take an entire month off so that they can travel to be with their families, and the weeks-long celebrations are loud, exuberant, and can be pretty intense. Since J’s birthday falls in the same week as the Lunar New Year Day this year, he will be taking the entire week off next week to properly celebrate both. 🙂
Koreans are not quite as into the Lunar New Year as the Chinese are, so I usually just sit back and watch him do his thing and only participate when asked to. However, when I happened upon these adorable paper crafts by Canon, I just knew that I needed to add to our New Year decorations with them.
The best part? They are all FREE and available on the Canon website! All you need to do is print them out and follow the accompanying instructions.
 Message Dolls (Wealth Dolls) |
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 Chinese Lantern |
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 String Decoration: Lion Dance |
 String Decoration: Fortune |
 Chinese Dragon |
 Lion Dance |
I had no idea such a fun section existed on the electronics giant’s website. I am particularly in love with the Milky Way Decoration Set, which is inspired by one of my favorite tales from childhood. (I thought for sure that this was a Korean fairytale, but apparently the same story exists in China and Japan too.) You can be sure that I will be making it for — or even with — my girls in the near future.
Be sure to check out the rest of Paper Crafts by Canon site for more great projects!
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super cute. Thanks for calling it “Lunar”. I get really edgy around this time b/c of stuff like that. Vietnamese folks are big on the Lunar New Years, so I love being included. I hope we get to see some photos of your home all decked out!
I’m a bit sensitive about it too, because although Koreans don’t make a huge deal of it, it’s still considered a holiday. And I know that other Asian cultures, like the Vietnamese, have big celebrations around the Lunar New Year too.
My husband, on the other hand, PURPOSELY calls it “Chinese New Year” because he knows I get annoyed. 🙄
So cute! I love papercraft and will have to print some out!
Oh, how fun!! Thanks for sharing! This would be such a fun activity for my nephew! 🙂
LOVE the decorations!!! I’ll have to put these up in my house. Thanks for sharing!!