I walked into my Chinese class to make an interesting discover, that Rider’s first day of the spring semester also happened to be the first day of the Chinese New Year. It’s officially the year of the Dragon.
Unlike the Western calendar that is about three weeks into the current year, which is based on the solar calendar, the traditional Chinese calendar, called “nongli” or agricultural calendar in English, is based upon the lunar calendar. For this reason, it is sometimes called Lunar New Year. Similar celebrations take place in areas that were influenced by Chinese culture such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam, which all have their own variation of the holiday.
Today’s celebration started last night, on New Year’s Eve, just after many fellow Broncs came back to campus. The celebration will continue until the Lantern Festival, 15 days New Year’s Eve.
Rider will be celebrating Chinese New Year on February 4th, marking the end of the holiday. Students from China’s Sanda University and Chinese program students will be participating. Music will be featured and the event usually includes free Chinese food.
This is also good timing for an off-campus visit to Chinatown in either New York City or Philadelphia, both of which will be decorated and hold festivities for the holidays. My Chinese professor told his Chinese 4 class to expect to see more dragon dances in the parades this year because they become more prominent when a Year of the Dragon is rung-in.
Xin Nian Kuaile! Happy New Year!