On February 2, on a cold snowy day, people gathered in the Concordia Jr/Sr High school library. The event was called Lunar New Year and it was hosted by the Concordia International Club. At the door, people were greeted by two students in their traditional costumes. They were wearing Hanbok and Cheongsam, the traditional clothes of Korea and China. MC gathered people and asked for them to have a seat to listen to the three presentations about the countries where these international students came from. At the end of the presentation, students were welcomed to visit ten booths to experience international customs.
At 7:15, the library was crowded with people. MC showed up on the stage and he told people to have a seat. The MC ran around and did high-fives to the people who was sitting on the front row. When he got on the stage, he introduced three people each from Korea, China, and Vietnam. Each of them presented about the way they celebrate their country’s New Years. The first presentation was by a girl from China. She explained to the audience about the importance of Chinese Zodiac signs to the culture. She said, “In China, there are twelve animals that represent each year.” She showed the chart of Zodiac signs. The audience looked interested and looked for their own Zodiac signs from the chart.
The second presentation was by a guy from South Korea. He explained about how Korean people spend the New Year with their family. He said, “People gather with their families and prepare food for the ancestral rites. Korean people believe that the spirit of dead ancestors join in for the supper. During the ancestral rites, descendents bow down two times for each ancestor.” He chose a few students from the audience and demonstrated the proper way to bow down. This time, he only had them bow down one time and said that the young ones in the family get allowance from the elders for bowing.
The third presentation was done by a girl from Vietnam. After greeting in Vietnamese, she described Vietnamese traditions in regards to New Years. She said, “People buy flowers to decorate the house for New Year and prepare food for the spirit of dead ancestors, just like the Koreans, however, they don’t let any other people in to the house before the rite to avoid the bad spirit coming into the house has ended.”
In the Kitchen, some other members of International student club were making food. The Chinese students were preparing Chinese style dumpling with spicy Thai peppers. They also set up the section to present hot pot, a common way to cook various ingredients in China. The Korean students were busy preparing Bulgogi with rice. The Vietnamese students prepared Vietnamese dessert.
After the presentation was over, the audience was led to the area where they were invited to try various foods from the three Asian countries and try other countries’ traditional games.
“It was a good experience to get to know some of our International students and their origin.” said 11th grader Noah Jones.
The purpose of this event was to inform and share about the countries where International students came from and it seems it was a success.
