Paper cutting. Music. Chopsticks. Lion dancing. These were all parts of the Lunar New Year celebration that took place on Friday, Feb. 13 and was organized by the Asian Pacific American Club. In the atrium and MLK room, students could fill out bingo cards throughout the entire day for game prizes such as candy and toys. Performances took place in the Roberts-Dubbs Auditorium during F-block.
Kevin Wang, an English teacher and the main adult organizer of the event, said that the celebration, which has been happening annually for at least a decade, expanded this year.
“This year we added a DJ, and we’re also selling food. It depends year by year, but generally speaking, [the celebration] gets bigger in terms of the students,” Wang said. “The lion dance this year is back because students have had training in it, and they offered to do it, which is really great.”
One of the most popular games at the celebration was feather kicking, a game where you kick a weighted feathered object. Freshman Hannah Li, who helped run the feather kicking table, said that the game was very difficult.
Freshman Leyth Nabiel, who attended the celebration during C-block, said he enjoyed playing a different game. Nabiel said he came primarily to socialize with friends but also ended up learning about Lunar New Year activities.
“I learned that there’s a toy with a ball connected to a string on a stick. You have to get the ball in certain spots. It’s difficult,” Nabiel said.
The performance during F-block in the Roberts-Dubbs Auditorium was hosted by MCs seniors Jia Yan Guo and Liyan Zhu. Some of the acts were musical, including the Advanced Chamber Orchestra playing a section of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto, a smaller chamber group playing their own piece and senior Ella Ngo-Miller singing “Mona Lisa” by Mxmtoon.
The musical acts were accompanied by various other acts: a swords and martial arts performance, a dance performance by the Popcorn K-pop Dance Club and a performance of the Chinese yo-yos by junior Jeremy Wang and sophomore Alex Tran.
The lion dance act made a return this year after a few years of absence. Sophomore Ryan Chang performed a lion dance with members of his kung fu school, as the two lions danced to songs such as “Soda Pop” from K-Pop Demon Hunters. Chang started lion dancing earlier this year and said that he began lion dancing for many reasons.
“There’s the cultural standpoint for me, but there’s also a lot of my friends [who] do it. I do it through my kung fu class, so I had the same teachers teaching me kung fu. It was fun,” Chang said.
According to Chang, the different aspects of lion dancing, which is done inside of a lion costume, present their own challenges. He said holding the head of the lion requires making sure the eyes keep blinking and that the mouth is animated, as opposed to hanging open, while the tail is often a two-person job where you stay bent over most of the time.
“Lion dancing is very tiring. You’re basically pretending to be a very energetic animal. I like to say lion dancing is you are basically in a blanket, wearing sweatpants and moving without breaks at all,” Chang said.
The performance was closed out by a speech from Wang, where he thanked everyone for attending and participating in the day. During his speech, Wang said that the community is what makes an event like the Lunar New Year celebration possible.
“There’s a lot of infrastructure that’s already built-in: sign-up sheets, resources, budgeting and all of that exists online. We just have to make sure that we populate it with all the resources and people that we need,” Wang said. “I’m glad that Brookline High School gives us the time and the space to basically take over most of the school.”
