Celebrate the Chinese New Year: 2013 Year of the Snake

The Queen of Snakes
from The Olive Fairy Tale Book
by Andrew Lang, 1907
Illustration by Henry Justice Ford

The Chinese New Year begins on February 10 and ends on February 24 and 2013 is the Year of the Snake.

“Ancient Chinese wisdom says a Snake in the house is a good omen because it means your family will not starve. This could be taken metaphorically to mean that a Snake could never have a problem with his family starving because he is such a great mediator, making him good at business. Or it could mean that a Snake would be willing to sacrifice his possessions, something the Snake has a lot of, in order to pay for his family’s food.

Any way it is interpreted is representative of the Snake’s character and is a measure of the value he puts on his material wealth. The Snake is keen and cunning, quite intelligent and wise.”


For more information on this sign and the others of the Chinese Zodiac visit http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Snake.htm

Here are some stories to get your storytelling juices flowing, or in this case, slithering!

SSSSSSSSTORIES

The Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

http://wn.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/GoetheJW/GreenSnake.html

The Girl and the Snake – Sweden
http://tinyurl.com/dxcw5n8

The King of the Snakes and Other Folk-lore Stories from Uganda
http://tinyurl.com/c7nkznm

The Legend of the White Snake - China

http://www.chinapage.com/wsnake.html
Rabbit Plays Tug-O-War – Native American
http://tinyurl.com/btxxdzm
The Rainbow Serpent - Australia
http://tinyurl.com/arv2cb6
The Three Snake Leaves - Grimm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/013.txt

Snake and Serpent Husbands in Folktales – D.L. Ashliman

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/snake.html
The Snake and the Pauper – Haiti
http://tinyurl.com/c8yxdz9
The Snake with Five Heads – Native American

http://tinyurl.com/afds4hc

The Snake with the Big Feet – Native American
http://tinyurl.com/d9hda5q

The Snakes Bride – Bhutan
http://tinyurl.com/dxzc3xf

The White Man and the Snake – South Africa
http://tinyurl.com/dyqy9fs
The White Snake – Germany/Grimm
http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-36.html
Why Frog and Snake Never Play Together - Africa
http://tinyurl.com/d9hzpnk
Why Mongoose Kills Snakes - Africa
http://tinyurl.com/bolyrnz

BOOKS

Kidzone.com

http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/snakes/activities-books.htm

 

CRAFTS

These two sites offer fun snake crafts, coloring pages, activities and more.

DLTK.com
http://dltk-holidays.com/china/index-snake.htm

Enchantedlearning.com
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/

CURRICULUM

DiscoverEducation.com - Reptile Adaptations for grades 4-6.

http://tinyurl.com/b9rf9tv

Prontolessons.com
http://www.prontolessons.com/reptiles.html

 

GAME

Snow Snakes – An Ojibwe game for grades 2-8.
http://intersectingart.umn.edu/?lesson/22

 

 

Karen Chace 2012 ©

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 greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.