Lunar New Year Campus Celebrations Launch Year of the Rabbit

of many Greenhill students.

Senior Jacob Liang, East Asian A nity Group treasurer, says his family celebrates the holiday with a large traditional meal and by exchanging red envelopes stu ed with money.

Senior Emma Nguyen, co-president of the Southeast Asian A nity Group, says her favorite part of Lunar New Year is spending time with her family.

“It’s a special holiday to me because it’s one that’s especially focused around family, and over the past couple of years, family has become something that’s really important to me,” said Nguyen. “Having that time that is especially dedicated to observing the new year, it’s like a new start with people that I value and love.”

e East Asian and Southeast Asian A nity Groups jointly planned a campus celebration honoring Lunar New Year that unfolded during the week of Jan. 16-20.

Nguyen says the goal of the celebrations was to teach more students about Lunar New Year and its signi cance and to get students to ask questions.

“Because it’s coming from the school setting, people are going to be curious and hopefully they will be empowered enough to ask questions about the holiday and to learn about the holiday in a genuinely interested way,” said Nguyen.

roughout the week, students from both a nity groups decorated various areas of the Upper School with red paper lanterns and golden streamers. ey also set up tables with culturally signi cant items.

On Jan. 20, several activities were held in the Upper School to commemorate the holiday. Parents of members of the East Asian A nity Group sponsored a luncheon for Upper School faculty and a nity group members featuring East Asian specialties like fried noodles and egg rolls.

I think one of the reasons why I came to Greenhill is because I noticed the diversity and I noticed the fact that we are willing to educate our community about all sorts of celebrations, cultures, backgrounds, whatever they are.” nity group members also handed out traditional Lunar New Year snacks and

During the lunch period, Middle and Upper School students were able to learn a traditional lion dance from the Jiu Long Lion Dance Troupe at the Phillips Family Athletic Center’s outdoor basketball

A special Lunar New Year assembly was also held in the Phillips Family Gymnasium. First, the Dance Troupe performed a lion dance, entertaining Upper School students as a neon-green lion, manned by two people, snaked up and down the gymnasium bleachers.

“I thought that was super interesting and really cool that we got to see that during an assembly,” senior Chancey Stefanos said.

“I think it was a fun way to immerse us in en, two students from each grade participated in a trivia game, answering various questions about Lunar New Year. e freshmen ultimately won, receiving a jar of candy as their prize.

Stefanos, who participated in the trivia game, said the engaging format helped her learn more about the holiday and the traditions of her peers that celebrate it.

“I think like with any holiday that people don’t celebrate, it’s interesting to learn about di erent cultures,” Stefanos said. “Also at Greenhill, we have such a diverse community, so we’re given the invaluable opportunity to learn about the holidays everyone celebrates and get to see such di erent experiences.”

Chu said she hopes students see and appreciate all the work the a nity group members, parents and teachers have put into teaching the greater Greenhill community about the holiday.

“Everyone has put in time to make this celebration a celebration, and hopefully people learn from it,” Chu said. “I hope that students feel like they either can celebrate, learn, as well as enjoy it and have fun and experience what Lunar New Year should feel like whether you celebrate that festival or not.”