New Year’s Day has already passed in American culture, but many Asian cultures celebrate the coming of the new year on the lunar calendar. Lunar New Year begins on Feb. 12 and is a 15-day celebration.
Some of the Asian cultural clubs at MHS, such as the Chinese Club, Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), and Asian-American Association, discussed their plans for the upcoming Lunar New Year.
Chinese Club Vice President Audrey Tran explained what her club would typically do in celebration of the New Year via a Zoom interview. “Every Lunar New Year, Chinese Club would host the Lunar Show,” Tran said. “We have a variety of different performances and other clubs would perform their own acts in the show to a joint performance.”
“The Lunar Show is our main event and what we’re usually known for,” Tran elaborated. “It’s a pretty big event and a huge part of Chinese Club that a lot of people know about. We were thinking for a while about what we should do because we can’t host a Lunar Show this year, so we teamed up with Operation Smiles.”
The club, Operation Smiles, aims to increase cleft palate awareness and provide safe access to surgery, according to their Instagram (@operationsmile).
Chinese Club Representative Karina Wong elaborated on the club’s plans to celebrate Lunar New Year virtually. “In replacement of the Lunar Show, Chinese Club is collaborating with Operation Smiles to continue our tradition of celebrating Lunar New Year’s through performing,” Wong said. “Chinese Club will be teaching a three-minute dance, and all funds will be donated to charity,” she mentioned.
Wong further explained Chinese Club’s plans for their upcoming fundraiser. “I think giving back and being grateful is a huge part of Lunar New Year, and Chinese Club will continue to hold true to that,” Wong said. “Operation Smiles will be hosting a series of cultural dance workshops. Clubs including Chinese Club, VSA, Desi Union, and KDT will be charging $5 to learn a cultural dance, and it will cost $12 if students want to join all 4 dance workshops. All funds will be donated to charity.”
Vietnamese Student Association also discussed its plans for Lunar New Year. “Usually, we’d have a meeting to just celebrate Lunar New Year,” VSA Secretary Ethan To said via a Zoom interview. “We put out a little announcement because, during this time, Vietnamese people are very family-oriented, so we want to allow for people to spend some more time with their families,” To added. “So we’d have a meeting where we all talk about Lunar New Year, the history, the cultural significance, maybe play some games, and have some fun,” he added.
“This year, we will be having a meeting the Friday before Lunar New Year,” To said. “During that meeting, we’re going to be talking about Lunar New Year, and we’re going [to] have an activity to do with our Ace families, which are little [student] groups that we have within VSA with maybe just crafts,” he said. “We are planning on having a club bonding the week of the New Year, or maybe the weekend of Lunar New Year,” To added.
The Asian-American Association also has plans for Lunar Year, according to Club President Tammy Huang. “Lunar New Year is one of our bigger events as most of our officers and members celebrate this day,” Huang said in a Zoom interview. “With everyone coming from different backgrounds, it’s super interesting to get to know about each other’s festivities.”
Huang also spoke about her club’s plans to teach members about the culture behind Lunar New Year. “This year, we’re planning to give a short presentation of how different cultures celebrate Lunar New Year, post a couple food videos on our Instagram, and host a virtual movie night,” Huang said. “We typically like to introduce each country’s unique customs when it comes to celebrating Lunar New Year and include food or member bonding to stimulate a ‘reunion’ atmosphere,” she added.
Despite the struggles of operating virtually, Asian American Association, Vietnamese Student Association, and Chinese Club are working to create a sense of community and normalcy for their members through Lunar New Year activities.