Three…two…one… “Gung-Hay Fat Choi,” families cry out across the world as midnight arrives, bringing Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is a major event in Chinese culture, and is celebrated by Chinese families across the world. This year Chinese New Year occurred on Feb 18.
Carlmont’s Chinese Culture Club (CCC) is also preparing an event for students to celebrate Chinese New Year with each other, which is happening on Feb 20.
“Chinese New Year is the most important festival within Chinese culture because it brings the whole family together in union and celebration,” said CCC Co-President Pearl Lee. “The Chinese New Year event at Carlmont is a big celebration and it’s a great way to spread Chinese culture to the students. We have a lot of activities going on at this event, and we have a lunch that we do at the end of the event which is symbolic for a traditional dinner that one has with their family on Chinese New Year.
This upcoming event will take place in the student union and the event itself consists of many interactive stations in which students can engage in activities dealing with Chinese culture.
CCC Co-President Ashley Cheung said, “This event is meant to be not only a celebration, but also a learning experience. There’s performances that happen in the beginning, and then we have different stations such as calligraphy in which students learn about Chinese Culture.”
This event has been a tradition within the Chinese community of Carlmont, and this year will be the 9th year since it was started.
Though this Chinese New Year’s celebration might seem like all fun and games to most people, the CCC have to work hard to plan and organize this event.
CCC’s teacher adviser Mindy Chiang said, “We start planning for this on the first day of school. The officers and I have to make a lot of decisions to make this event happen. Right now the club presidents and I are working together to organize and prepare for this event, but it’s really a lot of work.”
The event has gotten a lot of positive feedback from previous years, which motivates Chiang and the CCC to continue to have this celebration.
“The feedback we’ve gotten is good, so it’s worth all the time and effort we put into this project,” said Chiang.
Chiang said, “I love this event. It’s really exciting to see students learning the culture and you know that they will have this imprinted in their head.”
