With festivities beginning earlier in the week, ASU planned a variety of activities for all students to engage with. 

Friday evening included games and crafts, a talent show performance, and snacks and cuisine from the different cultures celebrating the holiday. The evening began with a Kahoot to test the audience's listening skills when it came to the ASU co-heads presentation about Lunar New Year. A decorated Kellas Commons also featured a raffle of special themed prizes, a curated event playlist, and of course, the blossom-tree adorned with red envelopes for students. Students also enjoyed sparklers and firecrackers on campus later in the evening, a new facet of the celebration this year that was a big favorite among attendees!

 

 

 

 

Members of the Emma campus community continued to observe the New Year holiday throughout the weekend, with more hands-on fun such as a dumpling-making workshop led by ASU advisor Guangu Hao’s mother, and students dining out at MOSU (an Asian-style BBQ & Chinese hot pot restaurant in Albany). On Sunday, students had a chance to visit The Chinese Community Center's Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year Gala Show!

 

 

We invited our student and adult organizers of the Lunar New Year Celebration to reflect on this year’s event and the importance of the holiday to them:

Hanh N. ’24, ASU Co-Head

For me, I really loved the ground firecrackers this year! It was a super nice bonding moment between everyone who did the activity and also it was just really beautiful in general. The main challenge was our time constraint for setting up as there was a previous event before us that limited our set up time to about 30 minutes. Overall though I’m very sad this is my last lunar new year but definitely not my least!

Mehar S. ’24, ASU Co-Head

Getting to experience Lunar New Year as someone who does not celebrate has been a really valuable and meaningful learning experience for me. The celebration was so full of enjoyment and love that it's hard to pick just a few highlights! The firecrackers were definitely a really special moment and it was great to see everyone participate. The Talent Show was also really wonderful, especially hearing our peers cheer for everyone performing! Since we did not have a lot of time to set up, making sure everything ran smoothly and was set up in time during the event was a bit of a struggle, but we managed. I think everyone who came enjoyed the event and will remember it for a long time.

Sherry H. ’24, ASU Co-Head

The firecracker was such a memorable experience for me since I have never done it before! I think the excitement from everyone throughout the celebration was amazing, especially the support from the crowd to performers during the talent show. One challenge I would highlight is the setup process, since we did not anticipate the overlap with the blood drive. But with our members' help, we were able to finish everything smoothly! This year's lighting and decoration was so beautiful, I think it was an awesome Lunar New Year for everyone!

Kayley Y. ’25

Lunar New Year has always been my favorite holiday of the year and this celebration made me feel like I was right at home! From the variety of activity stations, the abundant delicious snacks I ate, the talented acts, to crossing my fingers for every raffle ticket announcement... I really felt the festive spirit of the Dragon this holiday. Most of all, just being surrounded by my closest friends drinking bubble tea together at the celebration, or drinking bubble tea together lighting firecrackers, or drinking bubble tea together at MOSU brought a heart-warming sense of community I missed from home (and a sugar high!) which is what Lunar New Year is all about. The night was made all the sweeter by being a member of ASU and knowing how much hard-work and effort my fellow members put in for weeks before to help create a night we can all enjoy. This whole weekend was one "emotional support dumpling" for me!  

Guangyu Hao, ASU Faculty Advisor and Chinese Language Instructor 

I am very happy to see students enjoying the LNY weekend this year. ASU leaders and members put a lot of thought and effort into the preparation, and so did I. I am glad I could ask the faculty to collaborate in the red envelope activity because it is one of students’ favorite traditions for LNY. Also, this year is the year of the dragon and I wanted to bring new surprises for students at the LNY celebration, which is the ground firework. I am deeply gratified to know they enjoyed the fireworks and I am happy to see students’ smiles through the celebration. I am also grateful that some of my colleagues came to the celebration to support us and celebrate LNY together, because one of my goals is to bring LNY in Emma as an inclusive festival that will be shared in the whole community. I also enjoyed the dumpling making workshop a lot, because I had two in one: a memorable dumpling making experience with students and my mom together！

Thank you to ASU, Chinese Instructor Guangyu Hao, and student life for coordinating and offering the wide variety of activities for the weekend! 

Find more photos from this year's celebration on SmugMug.