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Celebrate the Chinese New Year at Texas A&M

Announced: February 15, 2007

College Station, Texas, February 15, 2007 – The Institute for Pacific Asia (IPA), Dining Services, and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) are co-organizing the Chinese New Year Celebration, which will be held on February 20, 2007 (Tuesday) at 5 p.m. at Sbisa Dining Hall.

To kick off an evening of fabulous food and spectacular entertainment, a lion and dragon dance performance will commence at 5 p.m. at the Sul Ross statue and then march all the way to Sbisa Dining Hall.

But the fun does not stop here. There will be Kung Fu and dance performance right after the lion dance in the dining hall, where authentic festive food will be served buffet style. Chinese movies will be played in the Quiet Room adjacent to the dining hall, and two students will write names or greetings in Chinese calligraphy at your request.

“The Chinese New Year, or Chun Jie (Spring Festival), which starts on February 18 this year, is the most important celebrations in the Chinese calendar. Family and friends would visit each other’s homes and exchange gifts and ‘red envelopes’ symbolizing fortune,” said Randy Kluver, director of IPA. "IPA is delighted to introduce this significant piece of Chinese culture to our increasingly diverse campus and community."

“Like a lot of festivities in the West, the Chinese New Year is all about food, fun, and family. It is our consistent goal at Dining Services that we do not only bring good food to students’ tables, but also an experience that they enjoy, an incident that becomes a part of their Aggie legacy,” said Nadeem Siddiqui, executive director of Dining Services.

“In the past, most activities related to the Chinese New Year on campus are very exclusive. But this event is open to the public. We anticipate members of the university as well as the community will join us for this celebration. I’m very excited that CSSA is a central part of it,” said Yan Zhang, president of CSSA.

Tickets of this event are available at the door for $8 (or meal plan); kids aged 3 to 12 are $5 and children under 3 are free. For more information, please contact Carmen Suen at 979-845-3099 or csuen@ipomail.tamu.edu.

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Interesting Facts on Chinese New Year

• Also know as Chun Jie, Spring Festival, and Lunar New Year.



• Traditionally, the Chinese New Year starts from the first day in the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th, which is called the Lantern Festival or Yuan Xiao. However, in the modern day, the celebration usually lasts 3 to 7 days.



• Koreans and Vietnamese also celebrate the Lunar New Year.



• Each year, there is a presiding animal zodiac, which comprises of 12 animals, in the order of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. February 18, 2007 to February 6, 2008 is the Year of the Pig.



• Other Pig Years: 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, etc.



• People born in the Year of the Pig are considered honest, caring, modest, straightforward, shy, tolerant, peaceful, conservative, loving, and sensible.



• Celebrities born in the Year of the Pig: Alfred Hitchcock, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chiang Kai-shek, David Letterman, Elton John, Ernest Hemmingway, Henry Ford, Hillary Clinton, Kevin Spacey, Morrissey, Missy Elliott, Rachel Weisz, Ronald Reagan.



• Lucky Colors: red and gold.



• Special New Year Food: rice cake, dumplings.



• Next Lunar New Year: Year of the Rat, February 7, 2008 to January 25, 2009.

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