Nostalgia: Were you here celebrating Chinese New Year?

The Lunar New Year on Sunday, marked the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.

Lunar New Year is considered the most important holiday in China, and is also celebrated South Korea, Vietnam and far beyond.

More to the point, it is also celebrated in Whitehaven, Cleator Moor and Egremont.

King Charles, in his Christmas speech, talked about being the defender of all faiths and it is a delight to see our children learning about other customers such as Chinese New Year and the Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali.

So many of our schools - especially junior and nurseries - seem to acknowledge these festivals and give children, at the earliest age, the chance to experience and learn about other cultures.

What makes you smile in these photos,taken from our archives, is to see how the smallest of children are quite happy to tuck in to a Chinese meal when they probably kick up a fuss about anything slightly different that is served at home.

But the main delight is that they are so cute!

Look at little Beth Martin with her fortune cookie. We are not told what the message inside it was but I hope that she is still enjoying life as much as she seemed to be then.

And what about young Coban Parkinson who looks extremely determined to conquer the use of those chopsticks! That photo was taken in 2011m 12 years ago. I wonder if he is planning an engineering or some other problem-solving career.

Then there are the photos of the Chinese students studying in our area both at Keswick and St Bees,

Chinese New Year is the most important festival for the Chinese - I imagine the equivalent to our Christmas.

Were they missing their families? Did they enjoy helping others to understand their festivals?And where are they now? Wherever they are, wherever you are, it just remains to say: New Year goodness or New Year happiness, which are the literal translations of the Chinese greeting which would be our Happy New Year!