Students experience Chinese culture at lantern festival

Students celebrated the annual Chinese Lantern Festival yesterday with an array of festivities including games and traditional Chinese foods. The event was held for the third year and was co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity Programs and Services. 

The Chinese Lantern Festival is the celebration of the end of the Chinese New Year, which is the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar and the first night of a full moon.

Vivian Dao, a volunteer for the Peer Empowerment Program, says that the group had been "looking for a program for the Chinese community since the school is so diverse. We wanted to make the event smaller so that it doesn't collide with other bigger events on campus."

The Chinese Lantern Festival is something that is not only celebrated in China; it is celebrated across Asia, which is why a Vietnamese game, kick horse, was included along with Japanese origami.

The most popular activity every year, however, is lantern painting says Dao.

One of the foods at the festival was yuan xiao, or sweet rice glue ball, which shares the same name as the festival in Chinese. Yuan xiao also resembles a full moon.