By Jingjing Fu
A Chinese New Year event was hosted by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) Feb. 4 in the UW-Superior Multicultural Center.
Chinese New Year, also known as the “Spring Festival,” is one of the biggest traditional festivals of China. In 2017, the first day of the Chinese New Year was on Jan. 28, initiating the “Year of the Rooster.”
Preparations began as soon as CSSA received its SUFAC budget, said Xiaosi Zhai, CSSA vice president. Four activities were planned: Introduction of Chinese New Year; enjoying free Chinese food; new Chinese students’ self-introduction; and karaoke.
At the beginning of this year’s event, Jingwen Zhang and Yitong Chen introduced the history of Chinese New Year to students and professors from different countries.
They said it is traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Windows and doors are decorated with red paper cutouts and couplets with popular themes of ‘good fortune,’ ‘happiness,’ ‘wealth’ and ‘longevity.’ Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes, they said.
The event was successful, said Yuchen Li, CSSA president. “Only one deficiency of this event was that I did not prepare enough food,” Li said. “Our Chinese students did not eat because we thought the food was not enough and we wanted to save food for guests first; therefore, we decided to dine together after the event finished.”
Chinese New Year is celebrated every year at UW-Superior. Moreover, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association will also hold several events during the year. They welcome professors and students to join in, believing that it is not only a good chance to know more about Chinese history and culture but also an opportunity to promote friendly relations between students and professors.
Reprinted with permission of Jingjing’s News
