Happy New Year: Xīnnián kuàilè! On Feb. 6, Blue Jays enjoyed an evening of celebration for the Chinese New Year in the Brossman Commons. The free event, which reined in crowds for a celebration of the “Year of the Horse,” included craft tables with Chinese decorative paper-cutting, calligraphy and a Gongfu tea ceremony.
The Blue Bean featured Chinese spring rolls, dumplings and oranges, which are commonly displayed throughout Chinese homes during the Lunar New Year. As they feasted on the Asian cuisine, students and faculty were entertained with beautiful music; two erhu instrumentalists played traditional Chinese melodies as students crowded around the activity tables.
Although several students who take Chinese at the College were present, all were welcome. Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Huyền, who studied tourism before coming to Elizabethtown College for one year, shared why she decided to attend the celebration. “I’m Vietnamese, so Vietnamese people celebrate Lunar New Year at the same time as Chinese New Year,” she said.
“I feel very familiar with my New Year Day in my hometown, so I want to come here to enjoy and try something [like at] home. It will make me happy, I guess.” Since Nguyễn had never been abroad before she came to Etown, this year marks her first New Year’s Day abroad. “In Vietnam, for the New Year Day, we have three weeks off school,” she said. “We visit relatives, we stay at home, cook traditional food and we do a whole bunch of things, different things.”
Kendra Ormsbee, a first-year biotechnology major, decided to join the cultural party, too. “Actually, I didn’t hear about it until a couple minutes ago in my senate meeting,” Ormsbee said. “Then the music kind of drew me in, and it just smelled really good, so I thought I’d take a look!” Her favorite treats at the event were the potstickers. “I really like the culture,” she continued before tasting some tea from the Gongfu tea ceremony. “I’m actually pretty new to it; I don’t know a lot.”
Since red is the lucky color for the Chinese New Year, there were red tablecloths, red packets filled with chocolate favors and red outfits. Senior biology major Octavia Miles added to the festive red atmosphere by wearing a red winter jacket. She made it a point to come to this particular Etown cultural event because over the years, participating in the Chinese New Year has become a tradition for her. “I’ve celebrated it every year since I’ve been at Etown,” she said, adding that her first experiences of the Lunar New Year at Etown were the Founders dorm celebrations.
Miles, who took a Chinese language course during the fall semester of her junior year, traveled to China for Etown’s May term study abroad experience. She called China “wonderful” and remembered getting lost in Beijing. “I wouldn’t say it was the fondest memory; it was the most interesting,” she said, adding that she got lost as her group was visiting a coffee shop near the Drum Tower in Beijing. The thrilling part of the story is that Miles only succeeded in making it back to her hotel by reading pinyin, the Romanized version of the Chinese language, on a map. Thankfully, Etown is a much more manageable size than Beijing, so many students found their way to the event. Also, since no one was harmed by the two enormous Chinese dragons featured in the BSC, the Etown Chinese New Year got off to a lucky start.
