Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, marks the start of the next lunar calendar, and this year it starts on Feb. 10. It is an important festival in Asian culture, and over two billion people celebrate it, and because the holiday follows the first new moon, it happens on a different day each year.
“During Chinese New Year I usually eat with my family,” freshman Vivienne Tang said. “I spend a lot of time with them,”
Many families share a feast with their friends on Lunar New Year’s Eve, eating lots of dishes that symbolize luck, to bring a prosperous year ahead, according to China Highlights. On the last day of the celebration, communities hold a Lantern Festival to mark the start of Spring.
“To celebrate this year, I joined a performance last Saturday,” Mandarin teacher Yuhong Yao said. “Even though the lights went off, I still was happy that I joined to celebrate Chinese New Year,”
Every year there is a different Chinese Zodiac, and this year is the Year of the Dragon. Depending on which animal year you were born in, determines your characteristics, according to Reader’s Digest. The Chinese Zodiacs, like many other traditions now, originated from a myth that was passed down through generations.
“When I grew up, we decorated the rooms,” Yuhong Yao says. “But because I’m not in China, I have decorated our school room with our students, and I think that is my favorite memory,”
Convent and Stuart Hall celebrated Chinese New Year for the first time this year. Over the past few weeks, Mandarin students have decorated the campus, and today, the school had an assembly in which students from all grades performed songs and dances.
“I am going to help out in the assembly we are having,” says freshman Leila Sawicki. “I am going to sing and I’m going to wear the dress I bought for Chinese New Year,”
