Each year, students from the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) affinity group host a Lunar New Year assembly in the Chapel, highlighting their traditions and heritage. The Lunar New Year is a time for families to gather and celebrate as they enter the new year with high spirits and good fortune. This year’s assembly, scheduled for February 12, aimed to introduce a new tradition on stage. A major part of Lunar New Year celebrations is the emphasis on connection between family and friends. Members of AAPI hoped to form these connections with their peers by sharing their culture with the audience, one example being the Chinatown Community Young Lions organization performing a traditional Lion Dance.
The Lunar New Year, traditionally known as Chinese New Year, follows the lunar calendar, which, according to Britannica, is based on the cycles of the moon. Google Arts & Culture reports that one-fifth of the world celebrates this holiday, often spending it within the company of their family members and exchanging gifts—such as money placed in red envelopes—to encourage luck.
Families will also go all out with the decorations to encourage the festivities. Daisy Lu ’26, Co-President of AAPI, said that “a bunch of red decorations [are placed] around the house with words like ‘lucky’ in Chinese written on them,” traditionally used to ward off any evil from the past year.
Devan Jiang ’26, Vice President of AAPI, said that he was “looking forward to this year’s [assembly] for a more student-oriented one where it’s not just us presenting, but also getting the students involved too. Those kinds of assemblies are always the most engaging because it’s not just ‘Oh, I’m being forced to look at something….I’m actually a part of it.’”
In the past, there have been guest performers displaying their skills in paper cutting, face changing and dancing. This year, however, will be new and different to make it “more personal” to the audience, said Lu, in an attempt to educate others and create more of an understanding of the diverse cultures in AAPI. According to World Language Faculty and AAPI Advisor Ruoran Huang, the assembly is a great way to bring everybody together, emphasizing the values of the Lunar New Years togetherness and how the AAPI affinity space aimed to replicate.
This year’s assembly featured these traditions and practices when students spoke of their experiences and shared photos of their families preparing traditional meals for the New Year. Spectators had the privilege of admiring a lion dance that engaged with the audience and marched around the Chapel to greet people and bid them luck in the new year.
Jiang reflected on this year’s assembly, saying that “Every year we’re trying to keep a fun vibe, keep that high energy…so that people can be exposed to different things about our culture and not only be exposed to one.”
