Penn State Harrisburg Celebrates Chinese Lunar New Year
- Feb 13, 2015
- 3 min read
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - More than 30 people from six different countries participated in the third Lunar New Year celebration in the Capital Union Building (CUB), at Penn State Harrisburg on Feb. 13. The organizations in charge of making this event happen were the Chinese Student Association, the International Student Support Services, the Lunar New Year Committee and the Student Activity Fund.
“It is not only a special experience at Penn State, but also a great chance to see the students sharing their custom,” said Deborah Lynch, an instructor of English composition at Penn State Harrisburg and one of the judges at the fashion show during the celebration.
Three years ago, the event was an outlet for students enrolled in the Chinese course on campus to demonstrate what they learned in the class. As the celebration developed, the hosts thought it would be a better idea to incorporate the biggest festival of the Chinese culture, which is the Lunar New Year, into a more cultivating experience.
This year, the event not only shared the Chinese customs of the celebration, but also presented the audiences with examples of how Eastern Asians, such as Mongolians, Indonesians, and South Koreans, celebrate the Lunar New Year.
The celebration included a fashion show put on by Penn State Harrisburg students, presenting Asian clothing, a Kung Fu Tea performance by Xinzhuo Li
, which explained the tea culture in China, and a performance by Jose Johnson’s Chinese Martial Arts and Wellness Center.
History of Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts at the beginning of the spring season — the first of the 24 terms in coordination with the changes of nature.
Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. However, the word Nian, which in modern Chinese terms means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.
One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow many people with one bite, and people were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. He said to Nian, "I hear you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means your worthy opponents?" So, it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harassed people and their domestic animals from time to time.
After that the old man disappeared, riding the beast. He turned out to be an immortal god. Now that Nian was gone and other beasts of prey were also scared into forests, people began to enjoy their peaceful lives. Before the old man left, he told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away Nian in case he snuck back in, because red is the color the beast feared the most.
From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which may mean "Survive the Nian", became today’s "Celebrate the (New) Year,” as the word "guo" in Chinese has both meaning of "pass-over" and "observe.” The custom of putting up red paper and firing firecrackers to scare away Nian, should it have a chance to run loose, is still around. However, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration.
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