Cork, Ireland - A group of 6-year-olds stream out of Summercove National School in Kinsale, County Cork, brandishing their carefully drawn rats as the school in south-west Ireland gears up to celebrate Chinese New Year. "I was delighted to see her friends taking such an interest in Chinese New Year, wanting to draw pictures and learn more," says Geraldine Fay, mother of Abby, 6, and Lily, 4, who were adopted from China.
"We feel as if we have taken their culture and we would like to try and give some of it back to them. I try to make as big a deal of it as I can" says Fay, who is also pleased with the openness of the teachers' attitudes towards her daughters' culture.
"I have books and information and I send in a DVD to the school and playschool so that the children can see the customs," Fay says.
"The teachers tell them about the Chinese signs of the Zodiac, the story of the animals' races and about sweeping out the bad luck."
In a popular move, Fay also distributes hong bao, red envelopes with chocolate money and sweets to the children on Chinese New Year's Eve.
"The playschool and school also teach the children a phonetic pronunciation of Happy New Year in Chinese."
Apart from the celebrations at school, the Fay family will be celebrating Chinese New Year with an Irish-Chinese group which holds an annual celebration for families who have adopted Chinese children all over Ireland.
"We will also be holding a family dinner along with a celebration with friends who also have adopted children from China. We have managed to maintain close contact with three other families and we meet up for New Year every year."
Fay would like her children to eventually learn Chinese and says that her 6-year-old daughter is already asking why she can't speak Chinese.
"I did try to go to classes," Fay says, "but I found it difficult to get it right. When I was in China bringing Lily home, I found that if you got the tone wrong, then you could be totally misunderstood. I am hoping to get a Chinese person to come to our home to teach them."
There should be no problem finding a member of Ireland's vibrant Chinese community to do the job.
According to the Central Statistics Office, there are over 11,000 Chinese living in Ireland, but it is widely believed the figure is actually as high as 100,000, with thousands working illegally in jobs, having stayed on after student visas ran out.
One new member of Cork's Chinese community is Zhou Shouming from Beijing, a postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork.
"I have just been in Ireland a month. I am hoping to join the students' group at the university for a party. I am looking forward to making lots of new friends there. "
Zhou's wife and child are arriving in Ireland in mid-February and the family have no plans to travel back to Beijing for quite some time.
"I will stay here and watch the Olympics on television," he says. "The airline tickets are going to get very expensive around that time."
With an eye to Beijing as this year's Olympic host, Dublin is going large on Chinese New Year in 2008.
Events kick off with the opening of the Chinese Film Festival at the Irish Film Centre on Friday February 1 with director Jia Zhangke's film Still Life, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 2006.
The Chinese New Year festival also includes an international table tennis tournament, a literature and music exhibition featuring readings by Chinese writers and a Chinese Creative Writing course.
Dublin city art gallery, The Hugh Lane, will host workshops on Chinese arts and crafts on February 2 and 3.
At Dublin's 21 county council libraries, the crafts of kite building, lantern making, mythology and the stories of the 12 animals and the Chinese New Year cycle will be presented by various Chinese artists and teachers.
Dublin Zoo is also getting in on the act with an Asian trail and zookeeper's talks with the emphasis on Chinese Red Pandas. Even the menu at the zoo's restaurant will be Chinese.
On Chinese New Year's Eve, Dublin's River Liffey will host a dragon boat competition and there will be dragon and lion dances at various venues across the city.
Bedecked with Chinese arches, lanterns and lights, Dublin's Smithfield Market will be the focal point of the celebrations over the weekend of February 9 to 11.
There will be performances from Chinese acrobats and dancers and traditional and modern music, cookery and fashion will be showcased. Over 30 stallholders will provide a wide range of exhibits of Chinese food, medicine, arts and culture.
The official festival mascot, Lin Lin the rat, will close the festival on Monday February 11. A torch will be lit and carried out from the carnival into the Dublin night to the accompaniment of fireworks. It is hoped this will bring Irish athletes luck in the Year of the Rat.
