The year of the horse is off to a strong start as Suffolk’s Asian American Association, in collaboration with many other organizations on and off campus, hosted a Lunar New Year Festival Feb. 19 with food, a photo booth and the chance to win big prizes.
“Lunar New Year serves as a time to honor our community and our cultural traditions and look forward to the new year,” said Jerica Wan, AAA president.
The event was hosted in collaboration with the Vietnamese Student Association, the Nepali Student Association, the South Asian Student Association, the International Student Association, the Chinese Student Association, Emerson Asian Students in Alliance, the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion, Program Council, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the Employee Resource Group.
All 10 of these groups came together in different capacities, whether that be running their own booth with games and activities or contributing through the planning and setting up of the event.
“With Lunar New Year, at least for us, we like to play a lot of games, the Vietnamese, so we were trying to come up with a unique idea,” said Sandy Tran, VSA representative.
The idea they came up with was a “human slot machine.” This was made using a wide cardboard trifold set up on their table with three square cutouts with VSA members sitting behind each with pieces of paper with different traditional images on them. There was a cardboard divider between each member, separating them so they could not see the paper held up by the others. The student playing the “slot machine” would answer a Lunar New Year-themed trivia question for the chance to play. They would then pretend to pull down the lever by giving Tran a low five, and the students behind the cardboard would hold up one of their images and if all three match, the student wins a prize.
CSA also taught origami at their booth, inviting students to come and learn about the art form.
AAA has been planning this event since the end of last semester, doing research on what food and decorations would be best for the celebration
The result brought together Chinese food catered by Great Wok, sweets from CC’s Lil Shop and boba from Ten One Tea House. The celebration also featured a photo booth and a raffle with big prizes such as a Pokémon surprise box and a matcha set.
With a line out the door, a large number of students from all grades and ethnicities were able to learn about Asian culture and traditions from this event, learning about the Lunar New Year and lessons about how celebrations bring togetherness.
“In times where the whole world is crazy right now, we just need community and to have solidarity with each other as much as we can,” said Natalie Huoth, AAA vice president.
