“[At home], we had huge celebrations and huge potlucks every Chinese New Year,” said Michelle Li, a fourth-year politics and economics double major. “Coming to college, I felt kind of disconnected from all of that, especially coming from a different state and Santa Cruz literally being on a mountain. It felt kind of isolating.”
Li pioneered the UC Santa Cruz Lunar New Year Celebration three years ago as an International Living Center residential assistant (RA). After volunteering at Diwali Night, an annual event hosted by College 9 (C9), John R. Lewis (JRL) College, UCSC’s Indian Student Association and South Indian Student Association, she recognized the absence of a similar event for students to foster community around Lunar New Year.
“I thought, as an RA, since [the role] is so centered around event planning and hosting programs for people, why don’t we do this to recognize a holiday that’s so big for so many cultures around the world?”
Attendees participate in various arts and crafts, including making origami Hanbok, traditional Korean dresses.
On Jan. 22, over 100 students and community members gathered around tables strewn with brightly-colored origami paper, scissors, stickers, glue sticks and bottles of paint, crafting while chatting and eating with other attendees of the third, annual UCSC Lunar New Year Celebration. The event took place in the C9/JRL Multipurpose Room, hosted in partnership by C9, JRL, International Student Services and Programming, and C9 and JRL College CoCurricular Programs, among others.
Offerings included paper lantern making, snake bookmark making, traditional Ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock printing, origami folding and tea tasting.
The tea tasting featured four brews: jasmine green tea pearls, oolong tea, Korean pear fruit tea and Chinese pu’er tea (普洱茶) with rose petals, a variety of fermented tea pressed into a cake shape. A buffet of hearty appetizers included fried spring rolls, scallion pancakes and sesame balls.
Chinese dishes such as fried spring rolls, scallion pancakes, and sesame balls were served on the menu for the event.
East and Southeast Asian communities globally celebrate Lunar New Year, also called “Chinese New Year” or the “Spring Festival,” a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. The festival starts with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon, falling from Jan. 29 to Feb. 12 on the Gregorian calendar this year.
In the Chinese Zodiac, 2025 is the Year of the Snake. This classification system, based on the Chinese lunar calendar, follows a repeating 12-year cycle in which each year corresponds to an animal, and each animal corresponds to certain traits that typify the year and those born within it. The snake is the sixth animal of the zodiac, characterized by its resilience, adaptability and intelligence.
While observances differ by region and tradition, typical Lunar New Year customs include cleaning homes to repel bad luck, sharing an elaborate meal with family, holding public parades and festivals, putting up red decorations and exchanging red envelopes containing money, usually given to younger family members by elders, among others. In many Asian cultures, the color red represents auspiciousness.
“Lunar New Year has a special place in my heart,” said Jordan Yee, a third-year biochemistry major and Chinese Student Association (CSA) co-chair. “It’s a time I look forward to because I can see my family and get in touch with my culture. Also, receiving red envelopes is really nice, not just because it’s money, but I feel like I’m seen by my elders and they respect me.”
Members of StarChrome, a Santa Cruz-based K-pop dance team.
As attendees settled in, spotlights above the stage cast a reddish glow on StarChrome, a Santa Cruz-based K-pop dance team, who performed three dance covers. Then, donned in red and black outfits UCSC’s K-pop dance group POPreKA followed up the act.
After the dance showcase, Lunar New Year songs, mostly in Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese, played softly in the background behind conversation and laughter. A presentation about different Lunar New Year celebrations around Asia looped on a projector suspended above the stage.
The Khmer Student Association (KSA), CSA, POPreKa and the Asian American Pacific Islander Resource Center had informational booths about their organizations along the side of the room. Khmer refers to an ethnic group native to Cambodia.
KSA members Jetha Mot (left) and Anh Hang (right) share about their new association to attendees.
Anh Hang, a second-year sociology and critical race and ethnic studies double major, tabled at the event for KSA. She expressed gratitude for a space to bask in shared culture and identity.
“It’s really beautiful,” Hang said. “It’s sometimes hard to feel like you belong here when a lot of the things in this institution don’t feel like they were made for people like us in mind. To have intentional space carved out for our community and for us to be able to explicitly talk about these things and talk about our culture in a way that feels celebratory is something that’s really important. Representation is always really important.”
While attendees came together to celebrate life-long traditions, Li emphasized the importance of taking pride in Asian heritage and maintaining cultural practices.
“We should advocate more for people coming together and recognizing that being Asian is not just a label or your skin color. It’s really who you are. Personally, it took me a long time to recognize the importance of my culture and how deep the roots run,” Li said. “I think people should be inspired to really foster that side of themselves. Don’t let it die or go away.”
Additional reporting by Bryce Chen.
