Chinese and Korean Clubs host Lunar New Year activities

In celebration of the Lunar New Year, Chinese Club and Korean Club worked together to prepare lunchtime activities in the quad on Jan. 27.

Students crowded around the tables set up in the quad to cheer on their friends as they competed for prizes and participated in games that correlated to Chinese and Korean cultures.

Lunar New Year, which takes place from Jan. 28 to Feb. 15. this year, is the most important traditional holiday in Asian countries. Since Chinese New Year and Korean New Year fall on the same days, Chinese Club president junior Nathon Chin and Korean Club president junior Ryan Kim, decided to collaborate and host this new school event together.

“This event provides an opportunity for all Saratoga students to learn something new about a very prevalent culture on our campus,” Chin said. “I think Chinese New Year is important especially at SHS because there are many Chinese people here and I want everyone to gain knowledge about their celebrations.”

Prior to the lunchtime event, the two clubs handed out red envelopes filled with cards to teachers along with a kind note.

“We decided to do this with the red envelopes because it is an important aspect of Chinese New Year as well as a way for us to show gratitude to our teachers,” Chin said.

For Chinese Club, there were booths in the quad where students could pick out rice grains with chopsticks and play with shuttlecocks and flying tops. Korean Club set up booths where students could throw sticks into jars as well as a game in which students flipped over flat paper game pieces.

“I think this event was a nice way to spread awareness about the holiday and the Asian cultures,” junior JR Im said, a volunteer who helped out with the booths during the event.

Because of the large turnout, Chin and Kim are content that the activities created a positive vibe around school and helped spread awareness of the Chinese and Korean culture for the new year. In future years, they hope that this event will become a school tradition.

“The event went smoothly as planned and people seemed to enjoy it,” said junior Nicholas Di, who assisted Chin and Kim. “I think it was a nice experience for everyone who participated because it provided students with something fun to do with their friends.”