View a photo gallery of the Lunar New Year presentation

On the last day of the Lunar New Year festival, several of our students from China offered a special presentation about the holiday at an all-school assembly. They explained the 12-year calendar cycle, in which each year is represented by an animal and an element from nature. Whatever year you are born in, it is believed that you will have some of the personalities and characteristics of the animal representing your year. This is the year of the dragon, which is considered to be a year promising change, and if you are born in this year, you may exhibit some common characteristics, including flexibility, innovativeness, self-assuredness, bravery and passion. The students also presented a video prepared by the Chinese Culture and Conversation Class, explaining the symbolism of the year of the dragon.

To share some of their cultural heritage, the students then presented a fashion show of beautiful clothing distinctive to various regions and ethnic groups in China and explained the background of each item featured.

Finally, the students presented a video they made that showed how they celebrated the new year by making and cooking dumplings, playing games like traditional Chinese yo-yo and shuttlecock, enjoying red packets and other symbolic and traditional activities. They may have been far away from home during this holiday that is so typically celebrated with family, but the Chinese students thanked the Bullis community for being their new family and sharing the holiday with them.

February 16, 2012