On February 12, the Spring Festival, dedicated to the Lunar New Year was celebrated in the Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Physics and Mathematics in Astana.

Chinese, spoken by every fifth person of the planet, is studied as the second foreign language along with English at the school. Young intellectuals are very happy to study Chinese language and be acquainted with the traditions of Oriental countries.

Grade 8-9 students participated in the celebration of Spring Festival. The students answered the quiz questions, sang a Chinese folk song and showed a staging of a legend explaining the origin and meaning of the Chinese horoscope signs.

According to Chinese teachers Aitzhanova Meruert and Em Alina, the New Year starts in the period from February 5 to March 4 by the eastern calendar. The Chinese New Year, which is literally translated as the Spring Festival, is celebrated for a long period of time – almost a fortnight, until the great lantern festival.

The students of the Intellectual School had the opportunity to get familiar with Chinese culture, learned about the history of the New Year, and showed their proficiency of Chinese.