Thursday, Feb. 19, began the celebration of the Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival. This year is the “Year of the Goat.” Each year in the 12-year cycle is assigned an animal; last year was the Horse, and next is the Monkey.
Elizabethtown College is home to many international students, and on Wednesday, Feb. 18, Etown held its own mini-celebration of the Lunar New Year with drum performances, crafts, sweets and special foods in the Marketplace.
On the second floor of the Baugher Student Center, International Student Services, the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking and the Department of Modern Languages co-sponsored the event.
There was an educational Powerpoint running describing various aspects of the Lunar New Year around the world, as well as a paper cutting craft that symbolizes the coming of spring and musical performances.
“There were two erhu players and two drummers. They came to the College from the Chinese Cultural Heritage Center in Harrisburg,” Syrdahl said in regards to the musical aspect of the celebration. “The Lunar New Year is often celebrated with musical performances and dragon dances. The young boys, both aged nine, were performing in honor of the new year.”
Dining Services was also very involved in the execution of the event, serving a “delicious and culturally appropriate meal to compliment the event,” Syrdahl said. The Marketplace hearth featured three traditional dishes that night: whole fish, cooked by Chef Charlie, dumplings and spring rolls, in addition to the candies and sweets outside the event.
This is the third time Etown has celebrated the Lunar New Year. Syrdahl said that her job is bringing awareness of different cultures to campus, and this event helped with that goal. She is looking forward to bringing other cultural celebrations to campus for students to experience and enjoy.
For international students who may be feeling homesick, Syrdahl said these events are a wonderful way of bringing their home culture here for them.
The Lunar New Year originated in China thousands of years before the Common Era began. Its traditions are rooted in finding good luck and prosperity and cleansing the bad feelings and luck from the past year.
According to Columbia University, people try to spiritually cleanse themselves of any bad feelings before the new year, especially between friends or family members they have not spoken to or seen in a long time. Families spend time cleaning the house of bad luck. However, during the celebration, brooms are put away to avoid accidentally sweeping out the new year’s good luck.
It is traditional to wear new clothing during the celebration to symbolize a fresh start. Friends and family share food and exchange gifts during the celebrations. Children especially look forward to the tradition of receiving red envelopes, which are small red envelopes with money in them.
Everyone is on their best behavior during the 15-day New Year celebration. The last day is the Lantern Festival. Thousands of red lanterns are released into the sky to bring in more luck. Red is a lucky color in China, so red is very prevalent in celebrations.
The Chinese Zodiac is based in the Lunar Calendar; the 12 animals of the Zodiac are assigned years in rotation. This year is the Year of the Goat. The other animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each animal, like the Western Zodiac signs, have traditional traits assigned to them.
People born in the Year of the Goat, according to the PowerPoint shown that evening, are said to be calm, gentle, creative, thoughtful, amicable, persevering, frank and honest. Their lucky colors are red, brown and purple, and lucky months are August and November.
