Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is a centuries-old tradition celebrating the beginning of a new calendar year. The new year rings in with 15 days worth of traditions, culminating with the Lantern Festival. This year, Chinese New Year officially starts on Jan. 25. It is the Year of the Rat, according to the Chinese zodiac, which features a 12 year cycle with each year represented by a different animal. Chinese New Year is meant to be spent with family: chatting, drinking, cooking, and eating a hearty meal together.
“We’ll usually go to my grandparents’ house, and we eat a lot of food as well as hand out red envelopes, usually the adults give kids money, and we just celebrate the incoming new year together,” said Jasmine Wang, a sophomore at Clarksburg High School.
Red envelopes are an important tradition in the celebration of the new year. People gift their families and friends “luck” wrapped in the red packets to ward off evil spirits in the incoming year.
There are many upcoming events in Montgomery County to celebrate Chinese New Year. Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg will host a celebration of the new year on January 28th. The mall will put up decorations and bring in traditional Chinese foods. The Asian Pacific American Task Force is also organizing a celebration of the Lunar New Year at the Wheaton Library, featuring a performance by the Li-Ming Chinese Academy of a traditional dance.
The Clarksburg community is also inviting families to partake in their first student-run Lunar Year Celebration, complete with live entertainment, dragon dances, and activities. Wang is part of the planning committee for the event, and she believed that the celebration will unit many different groups and cultures. “It’s held in the Clarksburg community, and we celebrate Lunar New Year, so it’s not only Chinese New Year, but it also includes multiple cultures,” Wang said. “I think Montgomery County should bring more attention to the Lunar New Year because many people celebrate this holiday, and it involves many cultures.”
Article by Amanda Capiton of Northwest High School
Graphic by Katherine Hua of Robert Frost Middle School