The Lantern Festival is the 15th or last day of the annual Chinese New Year celebration. This year, our branch planned its Lantern Festival celebration near the actual date of the festival, but issues with the parking lot clearing after the snow storm postponed the celebration one week. Despite all this, the Lantern Festival celebration took off as planned on the evening of Saturday, February 22, 2014. Special guest emcees and friends of the branch, Jameson and Xiaomei Fox, enthusiastically welcomed everyone promptly at the 6pm starting time. About 150 members and friends joined us for a delicious potluck dinner during the first hour. Before and during the dinner, as well as after the program, attendees enjoyed learning paper lanterns, New Year bookmarks, and coloring pages. Chen Mama and her friend demonstrated how to knead the dough and create the tangyuan for the sticky rice balls. Participants had lots of fun making their own sticky rice balls, and as an extra bonus, they were able to take them home to cook.
The program was initiated by the drum beats beckoning the entrance of two lions. The red and yellow lions, performed by Changle Nian, Elder Lim, Andy Huang, and Isaiah Shen, dazzled the audience and caught their attention. They were led by the percussionists, Jeremy Bates, Elder Gerber-Kai, and Amanda Huang. After the lion dance, Andrew Shen shared with us the origins of the Lantern Festival and some of the traditions that have been passed down to the current time to us. Next, we were entertained by three Primary girls (Amelia, Celeste, and Charlotte) wishing us a Happy New Year in three different languages (Vietnames, English, and Mandarin). The senior Primary children (Celeste, Henri, and Isaiah) sang the popular children's song, "Two Tigers." A special guest, Joseph Cunningham, thrilled us with the playing of the traditional Chinese flute and the gourd instrument. Then five students of Bing Xia (Yashar Garzan, Michelle Fang, Wendy Song, Ellen Zhang and Sarah Di) performed the song 边寨之歌 "Reaching the Border" on the guzheng. Following the guzheng, our own Susan Liu along with another special guest, Li Tang, led in the singing of the “卖汤圆” "Selling Sticky Rice Balls" song. Finally, Thomas and Amber Jeng took turns in reading the Chinese lantern riddles for all to solve and passed out special prizes for the correct answers.
In small ways, our branch is continuing to uphold and keep Chinese traditions in the setting of our church socials. It has been really fun to learn and be reminded of the Lantern Festival and the celebration thereof. Happy Year of the Horse to all!
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