Written by Sam Wang ‘21 and Kelly Yang ‘23
The Lunar New Year is a big holiday in many Asian countries, such as China, Korea, and Japan . In China, New Years’ Day is a day to subdue "Nian", a scary monster swallowing other domestic animals. Chinese people have a family reunion dinner and hang out red packets to celebrate the New Year. Vietnamese people prepare for Tet by lion dancing, cooking special holiday foods and cleaning their house. Koreans usually return to their hometowns to visit their parents and other relatives and perform an ancestral ritual, Charye. It is not only the celebration of the new year, but also a time for enjoying food and family reunion.
The Lunar New Year Dinner on Friday night marked the highlight of the celebration. First, Flik Dining prepared delicious traditional Asian foods, such as Korean style beef, Chinese style dumplings, fortune cookies, Japanese sodas, steamed rice, Shrimp shumai, and cooked fish. “I like the authentic Asian food served at the dinner, especially the gyoza since our family usually has them every year around New Year,” said Cathy Zhou, 21’.
During dinner, students’ performance brought the program to the climax. The two MCs were Anni Zhang 21’ and Samantha Wang 21’. A song performed by Ms. Wu's Chinese Class, Xin Nian Hao (Happy New Year), started the dinner.
Following, a romantic Chinese song, He Tang Yue Se, was sung by Yiwei Lu 20’ and Richard Zhang 21’. The mix of pop songs, representing the current pop culture in China, sang by Celine Ma 21’, Anni Zhang 21’, Reina Wang 22’, Sunny Li 22’, and Amanda Wang 22’ also gained high popularity during the dinner. Besides, a Guzheng and piano duet of a Japanese pop song, Lemon, performed by Lora Xie 20’ and Jenny Tang 20’ drew the performance to an end.
Parents and families overseas also sent their best wishes to all students at St. Mark’s by video in their own languages. This was a very moving moment that some students almost broke into tears when they saw their family in this surprise video.
During the performances, due to parents’ generous donations, there were five rounds of the lottery. To win the opportunity of drawing the lottery, the person needed to correctly answer a question about Lunar New Year. This provides people an opportunity to learn more fun facts about Lunar New Year as well as a chance to get their good luck at this special time. The questions include:
What is Lunar New Year also known as? (Spring Festival)
What are the twelve zodiacs in order? (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig)
Name any 6 Asian countries that celebrate the lunar new year (Choices: China, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Mauritius)
In the end, students came upstage to give their new year wishes in their own languages. We heard wishes in Chinese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Chilean, Shanghainese, and Cantonese. To close the dinner, ASA heads, Helen Huang 21’, Chris Lee 21’, and Kevin Takayama 22’ also gave their best wishes and plans. In the end, all members of ASA took an annual group picture:
The dinner also received positive feedback from parents. A parent of the class of 2020 later commented that “In the moment of ringing out the old and ringing in the new, it is very special for kids to gather at St. Mark’s and celebrate the traditional festival while being thousands-miles away from home. ASA helped create a home-like Community at St.Mark’s, where all have each other’s back and build lifelong friendships.”
The new year is a brand new beginning, a starting line. Now on this starting line, may we find ourseleves heading toward a splendid future!