SAN MARCOS — Over 40 students and faculty came together to celebrate Chinese New Year with games, prizes, complimentary food and a viewing of “Mulan.”
Palomar’s International Student Association (ISA) hosted the event at the Learning Resource Center on Feb. 26.
Chinese New Year festivals mark the end of winter and the beginning of a new lunisolar calendar year. The celebration lasts for 15 days, starting with the new moon that appears between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20 of a new calendar year.
The tradition has many variations across the different regions of China, but all celebrations center around welcoming good fortune and longevity. Ceremonies often include dragon dances, fireworks and family gatherings.
Jonathan Iván Reyes Ramírez, ISA event coordinator, expressed his desire to show support for different cultures and make Palomar more inclusive with the organization’s first Lunar New Year celebration.
“We wanted to celebrate our differences because that’s what makes us beautiful,” Reyes Ramírez said.
ISA Vice President Dima Aldouri highlighted the unexpected turnout, stating they anticipated about half the number of attendees.
Food services provided egg rolls, fried rice and chow mein noodles, and some students brought their own loose leaf tea and fortune cookies.
While “Mulan” played on the projectors, students competed for prizes in multiple rounds of what the organizers dubbed “chop stick game.” The winners were the first to transfer a certain number of wrapped candies inside a solo cup using only chop sticks.
One of the winners, Rafael Abrera joked that he spent years preparing for the contest by eating takeout.
The event concluded with a round of “international bingo,” that featured items such as “has a passport with 5+ stamps in it” and “has eaten instant noodles at midnight.” ISA President Yuko Otani mentioned that bingo is a crowd favorite that the organization features at most of its events.
A number of faculty involved with the Asian Pacific Alliance in Higher Education and Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander organizations on campus also stopped by to show their support for the event.
Gary Sosa, English as a Second Language instructor at Palomar, highlighted the ability of this kind of event to help Asian students feel more represented on campus.
The ISA officers shared that they are interested in hosting more international celebrations in the future and encourage students to stop by the International Student Office.
“You don’t have to be international to join ISA,” said Yuko Otani.