This year’s Lunar New Year will be celebrated by many international students and families through events being presented by Associated Students Interested in China (ASIC) and other international clubs at the university.
The Lunar New Year began February 10 and is celebrated for weeks in most of Southeast Asia and throughout the Asian community. The Lunar New Year is known as the Spring Festival in China and begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends 15 days later, on the first full moon.
“The Lunar New Year is a big deal in Southeast Asia and the fact that the foreign students are over here, they don’t get to have that level of celebration,” said Matthew Malcom, the treasurer at ASIC.
The School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies (SPPAIS) hosted an Asian-pop New Year’s Potluck Party on February 9 for all international students, families, and other community members to celebrate the New Year.
On February 17, ASIC will be hosting a Chinese New Year Celebration with Jasmine Flower Dance Company.
“We have a bunch of gifts we’re going to give out to basically everyone we can in attendance as a traditional Chinese New Year gift, which is a major part of the culture over there,” said Malcom. “We are going to have cultural displays and traditional Chinese instruments playing.”
Around the United States, Asian American communities have parades, fireworks, carnivals, and cultural performances. SPPAIS and ASIC try to provide this in Laramie.
The large Chinese study abroad group at UW and all international students celebrating the Lunar New Year will have multiple events to attend this February to provide culture they are missing back home.
Devyn Crago, the president for ASIC, said, “We have a lot of families, a lot of friends who come in and support Chinese Culture.”
