The celebration included many new year traditions, including the dragon dance, lion dance, cultural foods and fun activities such as calligraphy and chopstick practice. Students were also given red envelopes containing chocolate coins as well as coloring kits for dragon-shaped masks.

“[To me, this celebration] was very important,” Chinese teacher Ling Zhu said. “Chinese new year is the biggest celebration of the year, and it teaches students to embrace and respect other cultures.”

At the end, all the Chinese classes came together for a dance performance choreographed by Ms. Zhu, as well as a solo performance by juniors Sophia Lara and Naomi Lazarus. They have been preparing for it since before the beginning of the school year and practicing constantly, despite difficulties with timing between classes.

“Naomi and I came in the day before the fall semester started and our Chinese teacher taught us the dance. Then we knew it and taught it to the rest of our class,” Lara said. “I’m very proud that we did so well because we didn’t ever perform with all of the classes; it was only with our own class.”

Lara and Lazarus also did some preparing on their own.

“We choreographed our solo part,” Lazarus said. “Honestly, it was a bit of a time crunch but it was easy.”

The participating students were happy to share Asian culture with their peers through this celebration.

“I just thought that [it] was super important and was really nice to spread Asian culture and bring more awareness toward it,” Lara said.

Next year, Lunar New Year falls on Feb. 17 and students can expect another enlightening celebration of Asian culture.