Chinese New Year 2022: Year of the Water Tiger

Painted by Gai Qipie
1660-1734

2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger in the Chinese New Year. “The Tiger is the third sign of the Chinese Zodiac and is thought of as Ruler of the beasts on Earth. It is believed that a person born in the year of the Tiger is courageous, optimistic, tolerant, and generous. They can expect a long life, and were born to command, not to obey.”
https://www.tigerstealive.com/tiger-who-came-to-tea-blog/tigers-what-they-mean-in-chinese-culture/

- The tiger is one of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals.
- Tigers represent royalty in eastern Asia. In fact, the marking on the tiger’s forehead looks very similar to the Chinese character that is
translates to the English word 'King.' Therefore, the tiger has been dubbed the King of the Animals.
- The White Tiger represents the west of China as well as the season  of autumn. It is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese Constellation.
- They are the national animals of Malaysia, South Korea, Bangladesh, and India.
- Because of its stalking and hunting abilities, the tiger was used to
   represent the highest army general in the armies of Imperial China.
   https://www.tigers.org.za/tigers-in-culture-and-folklore.html

STORIES

Anansi Claims His Fame – West Africa
https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2000/06-25/0087_tell_me_a_story__anansi_claims_hi.html

Anansi, Firefly, and Tiger - India
https://mocomi.com/indian-folk-tales-anansi-firefly-and-tiger/

The Fox and the Tiger - China
https://www.worldoftales.com/Asian_folktales/Chinese_Folktale_26.html#gsc.tab=0

The Goat that Ate Tigers – West Bengal
https://booksameya.in/the-goat-that-ate-tigers/

How the Tiger Got Its Strength - Khasi
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/07/khasi-how-tiger-got-his-strength.html

How the Tiger Got Its Stripes – South America
https://www.scribd.com/document/152782463/HOW-THE-TIGER-GOT-ITS-STRIPS-South-American-Folktale

The Legend of How Tiger Became a Chinese Zodiac
http://en.chinaculture.org/focus/focus/2010spring/2010-01/26/content_367588.htm

The Nodding Tiger - China
https://www.worldoftales.com/Asian_folktales/Chinese_Folktale_8.html#gsc.tab=0

The Tiger and the Monkeys - Khasi
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/07/khasi-tiger-and-monkeys.html

Tiger Aunt: Beware of Strangers – Taiwan
https://islandfolklore.com/tiger-aunt/

The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal – Eastern India
https://www.worldoftales.com/Asian_folktales/Indian_folktale_9.html#gsc.tab=0

The Tiger’s Mistake – Malaysia
https://elfinspell.com/FolkloreCollections/Skeat-FablesAndFolk-Tales/Fable-9.html

Tiger Returns the Favor
https://folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/6017

The Tiger’s Whisker – Korea
https://www.eagle.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/The%20tiger's%20whisker%20korean%20folktale.p

The White Tiger - Korea
https://storiestogrowby.org/story/white-tiger/

Why the Tiger and Stag Fear Each Other - Brazil
https://fairytalez.com/tiger-stag-fear/

2010 Year of the Tiger – My previous blog post when 2010 was the Year of the Tiger.
https://karenchace.blogspot.com/2009/12/2010-year-of-tiger.html

BOOKS

24 Wonderful Chinese Folk Tales for Kids
https://www.pragmaticmom.com/2017/12/chinese-folk-tales-kids/

CRAFTS

Activity Village
https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese-new-year-crafts

Family Fun Crafts – Chinese New Year
https://funfamilycrafts.com/category/seasonal-holiday/holidays/chinese-new-year/

Red Ted Art – 11 Must Make Easy Tiger Crafts for Kids
https://www.redtedart.com/tiger-crafts-kids/

Red Ted Art – The Tiger Who Came to Tea (Complements the books of the same name.)
https://www.redtedart.com/tiger-craft-tiger-came-tea/

CURRICULUM

Tigers! A Look a Korea’s Folk Stories – Lesson plan for grades 4 – 8 offering additional stories.
https://www.koreasociety.org/images/pdf/KoreanStudies/Monographs_LessonPlans/Elementary/12%20Tigers%20A%20Look%20At%20Korea.pdf

FINGERPLAYS, SONGS, AND RYHMES

Perry Public Library – Year of the Tiger
Songs, rhymes and more for the preschool set.
file:///C:/Users/Story/Documents/MicrosoftWord-Karen/LAPSIT%20PROGRAM%20RESOURCES%20AND%20ARTICLES/Year%20of%20the%20Tiger.pdf

RECIPES

20 Chinese New Year Foods That Will Bring You Good Fortune
https://www.delish.com/entertaining/g438/chinese-new-year-food/

SOMETHING EXTRA

Tigers are revered in many diverse cultures. The sites below offer information from several locations.

Chinese Zodiac  Tiger Symbolism
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/tiger-chinese-zodiac-sign-symbolism.htm

The Siberian Tiger and the Country of Tiger Tales – Interesting background information, including two stories, The Tiger and Dried Persimmons and The Matching Mountain Spirit. https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-siberian-tiger-and-the-country-of-tiger-tales.pdf

Taming the Year of the Tiger
https://studycli.org/chinese-zodiac/year-of-the-tiger/

Tigers Place in Korean Folklore
https://gogohanguk.com/en/blog/the-tigers-in-korean-folktales/

 

 

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and weblinks may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links. At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

 

Karen Chace 2021 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission, please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I appreciate your support and personal integrity.

2010 The Year of the Tiger

The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Tiger, begins on February 14, 2010.

"The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Beginning of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coordination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations abound. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year (Do not lose track here: we are talking about the new year in terms of the Chinese calendar).

One legend states that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said, "I hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" So, swallow it did many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harassed people and their domestic animals from time to time.

After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal god. Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful life. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.

From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which may mean "Survive the Nian" becomes today "Celebrate the (New) Year" as the word "guo" in Chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe". The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose is still around. However, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration." http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/origin.htm


Here are some Chinese folktales and terrific tiger tales to help you celebrate in style!

Chinese Fables and Folk Stories – Download this book by Mary Hayes Davis, Chow-Leung, published in 1908. http://tinyurl.com/yda28q4

Why Oxen Do Not Have Upper Front Teeth and Tiger’s has Black Stripes - Khmer
http://www.chanbokeo.com/index.php?gcm=1411&grid=120001&gtop=5327

Tiger and the Firewood Collector - Bali
https://web.archive.org/web/20100418154450/http://blog.baliwww.com/tale/4515

The Tiger and the Frog - Asia
https://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/tft/tft05.htm

The Priest, the Tiger and the Jackal - India
https://www.pitara.com/fiction-for-kids/folktales/the-priest-the-tiger-and-the-jackal/?story=21

The Tiger, the Ram and the Jackal – South Africa
https://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/saft/sft06.htm

The Tiger King’s Skin Cloak – Mongolia
http://lakisf2.blogspot.com/2008/04/tiger-kings-skin-cloak.html




Picture courtesy of http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/images/tiger.jpg