On Feb 8, 2019, about three hundred people gathered in Lexington, MA to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year – the Year of the Pig. The event was hosted by Chinese Americans of Lexington (CALex), a local non-profit organization and was fully booked shortly after the registration was open. The celebration was also joined by State Senators Mike Barrett and Cindy Friedman, State Representative Michelle Ciccolo, Lexington Selectmen Suzie Barry (Chair) and Joe Pato, and School Committee Chair Eileen Jay and Superintendent Julie Hackett.
“This is the second Chinese New Year celebration CALex is hosting”, said the CALex co-president Houze Xu, “we are hoping to bring the community together to celebrate a great start of a new year and cherish the Chinese heritage and culture.”
The event started with a potluck dinner for which the participants brought their own favorite dishes. A huge variety of dishes was shared. There were dumplings, Shanghainese soup (YanDuXian), Shichuan spicy dishes and Northern style cold noodles, to name a few, reflecting the diversity of the Chinese community in Lexington.
The participants also enjoyed wonderful entertainment, including folk dances, standup comedy, piano and classic Chinese rock songs, performed by Lexington residents and groups from the Greater Boston area. The folk dancing performance Love for Kang-Ba was one of the highlights of the night for its vivid costumes, artistic choreography and impeccable performance.
To enable the tradition of decorating houses for the new year, calligrapher, Ms. Yu Lu, set up a free calligraphy station to provide the participants with couplets (Duilian) and Blessing (Fu) characters in red paper, which is a rare opportunity.
“It was a great event. And we felt this celebration brought not just us Chinese Americans together, but also gave us the opportunity to share our culture with the broader community”, said CALex event organizer.
CALex is planning to host the New Year celebration annually.