Photo by Alex Manuel
By Katherine Wan
The Office of Global Engagement hosted a Lunar New Year celebration on February 8, full of delicious food, cultural traditions and fun with friends. The event also featured a live dance performance from NC State’s K-pop cover group, KPACK, as well as Origami Club workshops.
Lunar New Year is an umbrella term for the traditions of several different Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam and more. The celebration is centered around the first full moon of the Chinese lunar calendar, which was on February 10 of this year. Lunar New Year is a time of preparing for a clean slate, celebrating with family and honoring ancestors.
Julius Devillo, a third-year student studying chemical engineering — and part of the Global Ambassadors who helped plan this event — talked about how he loves learning about other cultures and what connects everyone as people. Some of the activities planned for the event included a wishing tree, a postcard station to send letters abroad, a trivia station and a calligraphy artist.
“[We make] sure that we’re all informed and have knowledge on traditions and what goes into New Year’s celebrations, not just for Chinese New Year, but different Lunar New Year celebrations around the world,” said Devillo. “From my perspective, because it’s not something that I personally grew up with … I think the biggest thing for me is discovering what interests me, but also making sure we’re respecting cultures, not just being like, ‘Oh, this is a stereotypical thing I know about this culture, so let’s do that.’”
His goal as a Global Ambassador at NC State is to help expose the NC State community to cultural traditions through resources that are accessible to him.
Audrey Sukendro, a second-year studying communication, reflected on what Chinese New Year means to her personally. She performed with KPACK during the event and is also a member of the Chinese Undergraduate Student Association (CUSA). To her, Chinese New Year is a heartwarming time to spend with family and good food.
“So some of the [foods we eat are] dumplings, obviously to represent money, because dumplings are supposed to represent getting rich. And then every Chinese family kind of has their different traditional dishes, but normally you would see mapo tofu or hong shao rou (红烧肉), which is pork belly, braised pork belly. [It’s] just, like, really hearty foods, foods that are gonna make you pass out by the end of the night.”
CUSA was present at the event, sharing knowledge on Chinese New Year specifically and promoting their own Lunar New Year celebration on February 9. Their table also featured a traditional Chinese game involving a weighted shuttlecock that players attempt to keep airborne without using their hands, similar to hacky sack. Many students participated in the game, both on their own and in small groups, laughing as they ran around and stretched their toes in an attempt to reach the shuttlecock. Participants could win awards based on the number of successful kicks they landed.
The event was a cheerful gathering of NC State students and a few members of the local community who celebrated Lunar New Year and Asian culture together. Regardless of if you celebrate Lunar New Year or not, I hope you have a prosperous year full of wealth, happiness and good health.
Happy Lunar New Year, or as we say in Chinese, 新年快乐!