Victoria Santana
On Jan. 20, Aragon hosted a Lunar New Year celebration in Center Court. The event was run by Chinese Culture Club and featured performances by the Chinese classes and Chamber Orchestra.
The event was first held last year.
“Ms. Fan gave me the idea first … and she also [collaborated] with Mr. Chen to do [the] music,” said Chinese Culture club president and junior Lauren Hong. “She wanted to collaborate with [the] Chinese Culture Club and have us be the main runners of the event.”
Lunar New Year consists of many cultural traditions and celebrations.
“A lot of Lunar New Year [celebrations] consist of food and red envelopes,” Hong said. “The red envelopes represent wealth, prosperity and good luck in the future. That’s why there’s always money for you to put inside the red envelopes and we usually see a lot of families get togethers.”
In order for the event to happen, there was a lot of preparation needed to be done.
“I sent a lot of emails out to members of the Chinese Culture Club, but we also communicated with Ms. Fan about the details of the event,” Hong said. “We also [planned] during our club meetings, practicing every Tuesday and the day before the performance, we had a rehearsal after school. Ms. Fan also practic[ed] the choreography with her class.“
The performances began with a dance to “Xiao Ping Guo” by the Chinese classes and Chinese Culture Club.
“The dancing was great,” said sophomore Zachariah Rahman. “I felt like it was very interesting and very captivating. I think it would be better if they have food relating to the culture [such as] some dumplings or orange chicken.”
The audience was invited to join the second dance alongside the performers.
“I liked the second dance where it was the same one but everyone got to participate,” said junior Finley Patterson. “That was really more open. It was great because anyone could participate if they felt like it.”
Chamber Orchestra played “Spring Breezes,” a Taiwanese folk song.
“I liked [the orchestra’s] music,” said sophomore Fouad Krayem. “ They were really good and their outfits were very coordinated as well.”
The performance has gained praise from some students for celebrating Asian culture.
“I really appreciated how Aragon is starting to incorporate East Asian culture in school culture,” said senior Evan Wu. “Even though this is primarily Chinese I really like how it brought together the entire school. Everyone in the school was watching the performance.”
The celebration has also received praise for bringing diversity to Aragon through cultural celebrations.
“It’s just cool to bring more diversity to the community,” said freshman Jorge Barajas. “It brings people together all the time so that they don’t feel excluded.”
“Everyone in the school was watching the performance”
This year also marks the first time Lunar New Year is acknowledged as a state holiday.
“Once I saw [that Lunar New Year was a state holiday] I thought it was pretty cool to have more inclusivity and more branching out of culture [in California],” Hong said. “It’s pretty cool to see that my culture and the culture of a lot of people is being seen and heard.”
Some students see this event as a possibility for other cultural celebrations and events.
“If we had a Japanese [cultural event] that would be pretty cool,” Patterson said. “I think that exploring other cultures is cool and if you do Chinese New Year you might as well do all of them.”
