Last Wednesday (2/5/25), the Asian American Club hosted a Lunar Year Festival in the library. It was a wonderful environment. There was a photo booth with the option for students to dress up in traditional garments, a game where one picks up beads with chopsticks, Chinese candy, and a calligraphy table. Students from 9th to 12th grade were there, and many of them said that the photo booth was one of the most engaging. Most of the students I spoke with said that celebrating the Lunar New Year was important to learn about, experience, to celebrate other cultures. 

The holiday was first observed by the agrarian Shang and Zhou dynasties (roughly 1600 BCE), as a way to ensure a good harvest as winter transitioned to spring. The Chinese calendar is Lunisolar, tracking the movements of both. The Western Gregorian calendar is based solely on the sun, making the standard 365-day year. Twelve lunar months is about 354 days, and in order to align the seasons with the lunar and solar calendars they incorporate leap months. It is fairly complex, making the date of the lunar new year different every year. This year it was on January 29th, but next year it will be on February 17th. The holiday symbolized renewal, with many folktales and beliefs based on it. In Medieval Imperial China, the holiday was used as a tool to justify the existence of an emperor. The emperor was viewed as a son of heaven, and his sacred duty was to ensure cosmic harmony by participating in elaborate rituals during the new year . The holiday also reflected the Confucian notion of filial piety. Under Mao Zedong, in the 20th century, China shifted to using the Gregorian calendar and to more secular Westernized holidays. In the later 20th century, the Lunar New Year was reinstated. It has globalized since, making it present in the West.  

The Chinese Zodiac system rotates every 12 years. The legend is that the Jade Emperor, ruler of Heaven, decided to host a race to determine the order of the zodiac animals. He declared that the first 12 animals to cross the celestial river would be chosen for the zodiac. Below is a table of all the zodiac signs, listed from first to last in how they completed the race. This year is the year of the snake.