新年到
新年到
New Year is Coming
Nursery Rhyme
Nursery Rhyme
(Chinese)
(English)
新年到,新年到,
提花灯,看花炮
小娃娃,长一岁,
走路不用妈妈抱。
New Year is coming, New Year is coming,
Carry festival lanterns, see the fireworks,
Baby, one year older*,
You can walk, no need for mama to carry you .
Notes
*Chinese people measure their age in a different way, they count the years "gone through" since their day of birth - starting by 1, not by 0. Then they add one year with the Chinese New Year. So a baby born let's say in November 2009 has two years on Chinese New Year on February 14th 2010, because he "went through" the year before the New Year even if only partially (Year of the Ox) and he's starting to go through the New Year (Year of the Tiger).
Pinyin
xīnnián dào
xīnnián dào , xīnnián dào,
tí huādēng, kàn huāpào.
xiao wa wa, zháng yí suì,
zǒu lù búyòng māmā bào.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Thanks to Yuan Ping for contributing this rhyme. Thanks to Anna-Marie for the translation and for providing the pinyin version of this song. Thanks to Wang Li for helping with the translation.
M goi! & Xie xie!