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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1981)
i_y, F&t>x~i***ry 5, 1981 Aggies bring in the New Year Traditional Chinese festivities held early at A&M in anticipation of special holiday By Susan Hopkins C Battalion Staff elebrating the Chinese New Year is like having an American Christmas, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve all at once. Joyful dances, gifts for relatives and friends, colorful fireworks and worship services are all part of the traditional festivities that will mark the celebration of a new lunar year — the year of the cock — for Chinese people all over the world. According to the Gregorian calendar, this is New Year's Day. When the first new moon after the sun entered Aquarius today, the Year of the Cock officially began. But the Texas A&M University Taiwanese Student Club got a head start on the celebrations Saturday by hosting a banquet for Taiwanese members of the Bryan/ College Station community and Texas A&M's faculty, staff and stu dent body. About 300 guests enjoyed din ner, several speeches, a talent show and a film in the Memorial Student Center. Chao-ShingLee, a member of the Tawainese club, said that since families in Taiwan usually have dinner and fellow ship together on New Year's Eve, the club invites those in College Station who can't make it back to Taiwan to be part of “one big fami ly" at the banquet each year. D ances designed to bring luck and prosperity for the coming year were performed Saturday by elementary school students from the area. Covered in colorful beads, facial make-up and home made costumes, the children did a traditional masked dance with a papier-mache and cloth dragon. Chao-Shing said the dragon was historically a symbol of the empor- er or king of China. However, now that China has become somewhat more democratic, he said, the dra gon processions have been used to usher in a prosperous new year during the festivities. A “Good Harvest" Aburiginal Taiwanian dance was another popular number done by 10 of the children. “It's a colorful dance that is done to reflect a good harvest," Chao-Shing said. “We let the kids do it for the banquet so they could learn a little about the Chinese cul ture. Most of them were either too young when in Taiwan, or were bom in the United States, and had never seen these folk dances. They had fun learning them, and I know it was good for them." A double-sworded folk dance and figure skating performance done by a sophomore from A&M Consolidated High School com bined the drama and gymnastics common to Chinese theater. Re Leligious observance of the festival usually begins a week be fore New Year's Day, when the Chinese mark the end of the old year by bidding farewell to various god-like spirits, who depart to make their annual report on the past year to the ruler of heaven, the Jade Emperor. In keeping with the idea of clearing out the old, New Year's is always the time for annual spring cleaning and the payment of debts. Women of households spend long hours preparing food, both for ancestral offerings and for entertainment. Before the New Year's Eve family feast all doors are sealed with paper strips to prevent the entrance or evil. No one is per mitted to enter or leave through these doors until the paper is re moved shortly before dawn. New Year's Day for Chinese all over the world is spent payine ceremonial visits to elders ana neighbors, wishing them luck with traditional greetings, and calling on acquaintances far and near. Chinese children wait restlessly for this day — as youngsters in the United States wait for Christmas — when they are given “red en velopes," money awarded them by parents, relatives and visitors. Spectacular fireworks are always enjoyed by adults and children alike on New Year's. The Chinese traditionally mark each new year with one of the fol lowing symbolic animals, which are repeated in 12-year cycles: rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog and boar. Chao-Shing said that as a cock, or chicken, wakes people up early each morning, it also sym bolizes a waking up of the people in order to bring them luck for the new year. Although most Chinese people in the Bryan/College Station area will not be able to return to their native homes for the holiday, many of the New Year's traditions will still be observed by families, Chao-Shing said. However, the banquet at Texas A&M was the only formal festival in the area. Photos by Craig Rex Atchison. S'cr'e S 2 aT Q- s'TSirs- S E o o u wa •’y , tu vw w