On Friday, Jan. 20, the Senior School community celebrated the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday with a special assembly organized by the Asian Student Union and Chinese teacher Xiaoxia Xu.

ASU members Elaine Gombos, Monica Singh, Sunny Zhao, Audrey Jiang and Abril Linares Mendoza began the assembly with a presentation explaining the history of the Lunar New Year holiday and its various cultural traditions, also sharing some of their own family traditions.

Community members were invited to check under their seats to see if they were the lucky recipient of a red envelope. Red envelopes decorated with Chinese calligraphy and symbols are traditionally given on Lunar New Year as a way to send good wishes, happiness and blessings. Students in Ms. Xu's Chinese 1, 2, 2A, 3A and 5 classes made the envelopes earlier in the week, and inside the envelopes were notes of well wishes written by students, candies and lucky coins.

Next in the assembly, freshmen Cecilia Chen (piano) and Tony Chen (violin) performed an excerpt from The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, a famous Chinese concerto based on an ancient legend. Sophomore Sophia Gombos performed a peacock dance, blending traditional Asian folk music with electronica. A short video of students and faculty sharing Lunar New Year wishes was played, and finally students from all Chinese classes were invited on stage to sing The Moon Represents My Heart in Chinese as the community swayed along.

Thank you to the students for the special performances and Happy Lunar New Year to all celebrating the Year of the Rabbit!

Watch video highlights of the assembly, and photos of the assembly and red envelope making below: