Spring Break
Asian Student Groups Collaborate for Lunar New Year Celebration
Elizabeth Tuttle
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: Features
While ribbon dancers, lion dancers, fortune tellers and kung fu performers dynamically rotate through the center of the room, the walls of Davis Ballroom are lined with booths boasting delicious Asian snacks and engaging games and activities. Students, staff and community members gather to honor their most important holiday of the year and to share it with others.
The scene: a celebratory festival of the Lunar New Year, to be put on by several different Asian student groups on the Smith campus and to be held on March 1 in the Davis Ballroom from 6 to 9 p.m. This year, the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), Asian Students Association (ASA) and the Chinese Inter-Regional Student Cultural Organization (CISCO) are all working to ring in the Year of the Rat at Smith.
The Lunar New Year refers to the beginning of the year in several East Asian calendars, including the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. In each of these cultures, this holiday is the most important of the year and is celebrated by upholding a myriad of traditions. This year, the New Year will be celebrated from Feb. 7 to 9.
Thuy Le '09, a co-chair of the VSA, explained that "the Lunar New Year comes with the first full moon of the year, and they created it because of the farmers' harvest. We have dishes with good luck, really special names."
In the Vietnamese tradition, the Lunar New Year is commonly referred to as Tet. Preparations for the holiday often begin months before; superstition has it that one should pay off their debts so as to be debt-free for the holiday. Parents traditionally buy new clothes for their children and some families follow an established list of "do's and don'ts" for the holiday season, including purchasing a great deal of water so as to insure that money flows "like water currents in a stream," according to an ancient proverb.
"I think the Vietnamese and the Chinese celebrate in the most alike way because there's a lot of history between Vietnam and China," Thuy stated. As a result of this cultural intersection, the aforementioned student groups have traditionally corroborated on the event planning, as they share similar experiences and customs.
The scene: a celebratory festival of the Lunar New Year, to be put on by several different Asian student groups on the Smith campus and to be held on March 1 in the Davis Ballroom from 6 to 9 p.m. This year, the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), Asian Students Association (ASA) and the Chinese Inter-Regional Student Cultural Organization (CISCO) are all working to ring in the Year of the Rat at Smith.
The Lunar New Year refers to the beginning of the year in several East Asian calendars, including the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. In each of these cultures, this holiday is the most important of the year and is celebrated by upholding a myriad of traditions. This year, the New Year will be celebrated from Feb. 7 to 9.
Thuy Le '09, a co-chair of the VSA, explained that "the Lunar New Year comes with the first full moon of the year, and they created it because of the farmers' harvest. We have dishes with good luck, really special names."
In the Vietnamese tradition, the Lunar New Year is commonly referred to as Tet. Preparations for the holiday often begin months before; superstition has it that one should pay off their debts so as to be debt-free for the holiday. Parents traditionally buy new clothes for their children and some families follow an established list of "do's and don'ts" for the holiday season, including purchasing a great deal of water so as to insure that money flows "like water currents in a stream," according to an ancient proverb.
"I think the Vietnamese and the Chinese celebrate in the most alike way because there's a lot of history between Vietnam and China," Thuy stated. As a result of this cultural intersection, the aforementioned student groups have traditionally corroborated on the event planning, as they share similar experiences and customs.
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