Lunar New Year began Wednesday, kicking off festivities for many of IU’s Asian and Asian American students. Celebrations vary by culture and family, but food and family gatherings tend to be central to the holiday.
“I think everybody likes it: the oldest people, the youngest people, the kids,” Sheng Chen Zheng, a senior from Ürümqi, China, said. He attributed enjoyment of Lunar New Year to the fact that it gives families an opportunity to gather together, especially members who are away for work.
In Zheng’s city, lamb is common, and Zheng loves eating lamb soup during Lunar New Year, no matter how time intensive the dish is.
“It's just putting the pan and then boiling, like maybe for seven hours,” Zheng said. “That's pretty long. That was delicious.”
Anastasia Ilagan, a junior, said she’s a sucker for dumplings.
“It's always just been, like, my go to,” Ilagan said.
Though she didn’t grow up celebrating the holiday, Ilagan has participated in Lunar New Year events at IU.
“My favorite traditions here have been Triple A's (the Asian American Association of IU) event that they put on for Lunar New Year at the IMU,” Ilagan said. “The big thing that they have is like a fashion show, which kind of shows off cultural fashion. That was always really cool. My freshman year, I participated in it with some Filipino traditional clothing.”
This year, the AAA will have an open house Thursday to celebrate Lunar New Year with crafts and dumpling-making. Belle Chatpunnarangsee, a senior, extended an invitation.
“I would encourage anybody like reading the IDS piece or anyone interested in Asian culture to kind of come and celebrate it with us,” Chatpunnarangsee said. “We welcome everyone or even if you are interested about learning more like, feel free to like, look up stuff on the internet. It's really fun. It's a good time.”
Chatpunnarangsee has celebrated Lunar New Year both in Bloomington and in Thailand with her family.
“My grandparents are ethnically Chinese, so we have a lot of both Thai and Chinese influences when we celebrate Lunar New Year,” Chatpunnarangsee said. “I haven't celebrated with them in quite a bit since I've been here for college. But when we do celebrate, I really like the sense of community that it brings and obviously getting to see my relatives and my cousins and my grandparents.”
Sharing a meal brought generations of her family together during Lunar New Year. Chatpunnarangsee would help her grandmother make food, and they would place a stick of incense in each dish.
“We have pictures of our ancestors. So, our, my great grandparents (are) up there, and the idea is like, we say a couple words to them, kind of like, ‘hey, you know, Happy New Year. Hopefully you're doing well in the afterlife. And we hope you enjoy the food that we have prepared for you today.’”
Frank Nguyen, a sophomore, also described in an email celebrating Lunar New Year by spending time with friends and family. And by eating. He grew up with Xôi, sticky rice; Bánh Chưng/Bánh Tét, cakes made of sticky rice; and Chè, which can refer to any one of Vietnamese dessert drinks, soups or puddings. Nonetheless, the holiday has been celebrated on a different scale since he’s been in college.
“Coming from a small town, I didn't have much of a community that I could culturally connect with,” Nguyen said. “When I saw everyone celebrate LNY at both the AAA LNY Formal and Hamilton Lugar LNY event, it was amazing to watch my culture be seen and appreciated. Seeing everyone gather into one space to celebrate and learn was genuinely a mind-changing experience.”