WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – A token of good luck, calligraphy, and lanterns are some Lunar New Year traditions.
“Lunar New Year is a very important holiday in our country. All of our family members make a reunion, get together for the holiday,” said Chen Jieng.
Chen Jieng and her friends came out to celebrate the Lunar New Year at Thompson Park’s Zoo New York.
These women are welcoming in the Lunar New Year with some fun.
“Now we will show you some games we played when we were in our country,” said Chen Jieng.
It’s a set of simple traditional games. Card flipping, rock catching, and a version of jump rope.
They say this was their fun growing up.
Tao Wang says this allows him to share his culture with the North Country.
“We wanted to show our culture to each people, not only the Chinese culture, that’s why we called this the Lunar New Year, because we know that the Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese; they all celebrate the same holiday,” said Tao Wang.
Another tradition part of Lunar New Year is calligraphy. Tao says this is a way to manifest happiness for your home during the new year.
“You try to make something so elegant so strong, it’s very challenging, it’s like a puzzle,” said Tao Wang.
With a new year comes a different zodiac animal. This year is the Year of the Rabbit.
“The personality for the rabbit, would be somebody who is gentle, quiet, clever, elegant, kind and patient,” said Mark Irwin.
There are 12 zodiac animals in the Chinese calendar, but this can differ in other asian cultures.
The zoo also hosted a zodiac trail so that people could find their zodiac animals.
Each year the event gains more attraction, and It will return in 2024 to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.
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