The U’s Chinese New Year’s celebration, featuring a Dai Chinese peacock dance, a flower drum song and a telesthesia magic show, helped create a traditional holiday atmosphere for students Saturday in the Union Ballroom.
The event, which the Chinese Students and Scholars Association planned to welcome 2006 as the year of the dog, only lasted several hours, but the traditional Chinese New Year’s festivities last 15 days, said Mindy Layton, an education, culture and society graduate student who co-hosted the event.
“Most people are unaware of how long (the Chinese New Year is) and what (it) consists of,” Layton said. The new year “starts with the new moon on the first day and ends on the full moon 15 days later. Then, after those 15 days, the new year will go into the Lantern Festival, which is the end of the Spring Festival celebration.”
The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of solar and lunar movements. In order to coincide with the solar calendar, an extra month is added once every few years. This is why the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.
“The Chinese New Year is a time for family,” said Xin Liu, third-year graduate student in physics and performer in the event. “It’s a time to come together, have fun and share the closeness between your family.”
Layton said that the commemoration was created to give U students a chance to celebrate their culture even if they are living away from their home country.
“A lot of (students) aren’t able to be with their families during this time of year,” Layton said. “But, by putting this together for them, they are able to feel like they’re home.”
Although the Chinese New Year brings everything from traditional dumplings to folk music to the table, the best part is finding a red envelope under your pillow, said Ye Zhang, a second-year graduate student who attended the event.
In Asian cultures, red envelopes are usually filled with money and given to close relatives during special occasions like the New Year. They are usually decorated with traditional Chinese emblems that symbolize joy and fortune.
“My favorite part of new year’s is finding the red envelopes,” Zhang said. “Even though they’re popular because they’re used to give money, their main purpose is to bring happiness and prosperity.”