Students celebrated Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, with a series of events last week. The festivities kicked off with a group dance in the AP Room during lunch on Jan. 26 to “The Coolest National Wind,” a must-dance at every year’s LA Lunar New Year celebration. After the dance, senior Chinese language students David Flatau-Jones ’23, Chiupong Huang ’23, Matthew Piccoli ’23, Sydney Racine ’23 and Andrew Wolff ’23 passed red envelopes, a traditional new year’s gift, to the Upper School students, faculty, and staff.
The Chinese Culture Club, led by Claire Chen ’23 and Anting Luo ’23, provided an array of interesting games and prizes with a snack shop in Laidlaw Gym as the celebration continued. Activities included riddles, paper cutting and calligraphy.
“This new year has been the most special year for my study abroad life,” Claire said. “As an international student, I feel very warm and moved to spend the Chinese New Year with so many people in a foreign country. Many thanks to teachers for supporting and understanding us; thanks to my club members for working hard to make the day special; and thanks to all those students who participated in the celebration. I wish everyone a wonderful Year of the Rabbit.”
Day 2 of the celebration took place at the Lower School assembly in the Berry Performing Arts Center, where Chinese IV Honors students Gbemi Olarewaju ’24, Diya Patel ’24, Simrah Razvi ’24, Bella Rovito ’24, Sarah Shao ’24, Charlie Silver ‘24, Andrew Wolff '23 and Zara Zaidi ’24 shared an interactive presentation with the young students. The Upper School students provided facts about Lunar New Year, the Legend of Nian, the 12 Zodiac animals, and other traditions such as eating fish, the New Year cake, fireworks, red envelopes and lanterns. They also presented a video about the 12 Zodiac animals. The program concluded with the Chinese IV Honors students teaching the Lower School students and teachers to sing and dance “Xin Nian Hao” (Happy New Year) in a massive group performance.