Carrollton students gathered in Meli’s Hall to celebrate Chinese New Year on Feb. 7. Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Miami Chi-Yu Chou opened the assembly by explaining the importance of Mandarin and Chinese New Year traditions. He explained that 2025 was the Chinese Year of the Snake. According to Upper School Mandarin teacher Ms. Chen, “In Chinese culture, the snake symbolizes creativity and resourcefulness, suggesting opportunities for innovation and new ventures.”
Chinese New Year is celebrated by people from all over the world. “Even though I am not Chinese, I celebrate it,” said Madeleine Chene ’30. “Every year [my family] goes out for dinner with friends and [watches] the dragon fire dance. We watch special performances and eat a lot of food.”
For Ms. Chen and many others, “it’s a time for family reunions and festivities. Celebrations include customs like thoroughly cleaning the house (扫尘), pasting couplets (贴春联), enjoying family meals (吃饺子), giving red envelopes (压岁钱), and visiting temple fairs (逛庙会).”
According to Ms. Chen, these practices help “connect younger generations to traditional culture and practices.”
Much like the Western New Year, Chinese New Year is an opportunity to celebrate a new start. “Many Chinese people look forward to the new year as a time for new beginnings and express hopes for prosperity and happiness for family and friends,” said Ms. Chen.
In addition to hearing about Chinese traditions, students from 7th and 8th grade performed Chinese songs and read Tang poems. Students and faculty also surprised Ms. Chen, who was instrumental in putting the assembly together, by singing “Happy Birthday” to her. It was “a truly memorable gift and one of the best birthday surprises I’ve ever received,” said Ms. Chen.
Finally, Upper School Head Mrs. Consuegra highlighted the Mandarin program at Carrollton and recognized how much it has grown over the years.
This growth is particularly important, says Ms. Chen, as “learning a foreign language opens up opportunities for students to explore different cultures and perspectives. China is the world’s most populous developing country, and Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages.”
Ms. Chen hopes that this program will continue to grow and that more students will be “interested in pursuing Chinese language courses in their future studies.”
As students left the assembly, they were given traditional red envelopes and a Chinese good luck bracelet.
