Chinese Club, National Chinese Honor Society, and Taiwanese Culture Club hosted their annual Lunar New Year celebration on Feb. 7 with preparations for the event having been ongoing since last year. The event is aimed at bringing together members of the community in a celebration filled with food and events.

The Lunar New Year celebration is one of the biggest events for the National Chinese Honor Society, as planning began in November 2024. The event is directed and organized  by students and parents across the community.  All the food at the celebration is prepared by and donated to the event by parents, and parents are involved in volunteering during the event itself. President of National Chinese Honor Society, Ryan Dong ’25 looks forward to the event every year, hoping that students will enjoy the food and activities they have been planning for over four months. 

“We hope to have tons of food, activities, and games to keep everyone entertained,” Dong said. “Everyone is welcome to join even if they don’t celebrate the new year.”

While the event is full of food and activities, keeping up with the demand is hard to do at a free festival.  This year a few changes are being made to alleviate rising food costs.  AP Chinese Teacher and Chinese National Honor Society sponsor Janet Wang believes that these changes will help shorten the large lines they have had the past few years and ensure that enough food is left over for volunteers and parents at the event.

“The biggest change for this year’s event is that we are going to start charging a three dollar entry fee to reduce the lines and make sure there’s enough food for everyone,” Wang said. “This money will go to a charity, likely the Stevenson Foundation.” Wang said.

This New Year celebration is hosted by a variety of different culture clubs including Taiwanese Culture Club, Chinese Club, and the Chinese National Honor Society.  Bringing these groups of students together to plan such a large event takes a lot of planning and organizing.  Sponsors such as Wang work closely with club leaders to plan the event annually.

“With the food, games, reception, and everything there were so many things to plan,” Wang said. “So all the clubs involved, Chinese Club, Chinese Honor Society, and Taiwanese Culture Club met during the activity periods to get our planning done.”

Both Wang and Dong hope that this year’s event will bring together people from all over the community and be a fun place for everyone to celebrate. Dong believes that celebration is a great way to celebrate heritage and culture.

“Our aim with this event is to bring together students and parents from across the community to celebrate their shared culture and tradition,” Dong said.