'Berg celebrates Lunar New Year with food and fireworks

On Thursday, Jan. 26, Muhlenberg celebrated the Lunar New Year in style. An impressive 3,000 dumplings were cooked as a part of the celebration for the start of the Lunar New Year festivities, and members of the campus gathered to participate in some of the holiday traditions.

Lunar New Year is celebrated by many Asian cultures. This holiday is the beginning of the 14th Lunar calendar year. The first day of the New Year occurs on the first full moon between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20. There are different names and traditions for the Lunar New Year, depending on the Asian culture that is being observed.

The Chinese calendar is divided into twelve Zodiac animals, so each year is named with the particular animal that is next in the cycle. This year the first day of the New Year began on Jan. 28, which initiates the Year of the Rooster. Traditions for the holiday include a New Year’s dinner, giving red envelopes to children, which symbolize ‘good luck,’ and hanging up red lanterns.

This is the third year that the holiday was celebrated across campus. The event was sponsored by the Office of International Recruitment & Support (Admissions), ‘Berg Dining, the Dean of Students Office, the Asian Students Association, and the 2018 Class Council. ‘Berg Dining played a significant role in supporting and facilitating this event. They invited the volunteers into their kitchen to make over 3,000 dumplings and supported this event by allowing the Asian Student Association (ASA) to customize the menu in the dining hall during the evening of this event. The Plant Operations team hung the decorations, such as the red lanterns, in Seegers and removed them after the event.

As a special treat, the 3,000 dumplings were prepared by a group of over 60 students, faculty and staff. The volunteers worked in one-hour shifts. Each shift worked closely with members of the ‘Berg Dining team to craft and produce the dumplings. A huge line of hungry students filled the dining hall, excited to eat pork, vegetable, and shrimp dumplings. As a supplement to the dumplings, other themed foods that were served included: bok choy and mushroom stir fry, vegetable fried rice, glazed Chinese long beans, and steamed sticky rice. For dessert, egg tarts, Chinese New Year cake, and green tea frozen yogurt were served. Fresh green tea was served in the dining hall during meals. Students had the privilege to enjoy listening to traditional music that was selected by some of the international students from China and Vietnam. The students selected music that they grew up with and would typically listen to during this holiday back home.

Along with this special traditional Asian themed meal, there were sparkler lightings three times in Parents Plaza between five and seven o’clock. Dragon dancing also occurred three times during the night; according to Chinese culture, dragons bring good luck, and the longer the dragon during the dance, the more luck it brings to the community. The dancers also handed out red envelopes that had coupons for beverages from Java Joe’s.

Students were entertained with musical performances from some of our talented international students. Performers included: Yu Fei Li ‘20 from Kunming, China, Chunkin Liu ‘20 and Tingshuo Zhang ‘20 from Hong Kong, China and Dalian, China, and a zither performance by Tongyao Su ’19 from Guangzhou, China.

The night’s festivities ended with karaoke in the Event Space.

“Before I returned to Muhlenberg in 2013, I lived in Vietnam for three years teaching English to international students,” said Kim Nguyen ’07, Director of International Recruitment and Support. “I celebrated the Lunar New Year (known as “Tet”) in Vietnam with my family. I loved celebrating this holiday overseas and am thrilled to see it being celebrated at Muhlenberg!”