WEB EXCLUSIVE The Mandarin class celebrated Chinese New Year today at a Chinese restaurant.

“Today we celebrated the Lunar New Year,” Stuart Hall junior Neo Kounalakis said. “This event in addition to our course curriculum makes Mandarin an all-encompassing and unique educational experience.”

Chinese New Year celebrates the beginning of the traditional Chinese calendar. This year commemorates the year of the pig.

“We ate sweet and sour chicken, tofu, eggplant, rice and chow mein,” junior Michelle Wang said. “We were also able to practice our Mandarin with the waiters and celebrate the Chinese New Year together as a class.”

The pig is the twelfth animal of the 12-year cycle in the Chinese Zodiac. According to chinesenewyear.net people who were born in the year of the pig “have a beautiful personality and are blessed with good fortune in life.”

“Chinese New Year is a very exciting holiday because of its celebrations, parades, fireworks and food,” junior Nyxa Aquino-Thomas who took Mandarin freshman and sophomore year said. “We share food and talk about the Chinese tales and legends that surround the holidays.”

Asian countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year welcome the year of the pig with banquets and temple visits.

“Celebrating Chinese New Year was always one of the best classes during the year,” Aquino-Thomas said.