The University’s Asian American Ambassadors celebrated the Lunar New Year for the first time on campus by tabling in Free Speech Plaza on Friday, encouraging passersby to learn more about an important day in Asian culture.
The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is a celebration to bring in the New Year on the lunar calendar. While often called the Chinese New Year, it is also celebrated by other Asian countries like Korea, Vietnam and Japan.
The Asian American Ambassadors is under a new executive board this year and aims to enlighten students about a quickly growing University culture.
“We want to promote Asian culture on campus due to the fact that 4 percent of the LSU community is Asian,” said Isabelle Vea, president of AAA. “We just want to make our voice heard.”
One of the major traditions during the Lunar New Year is for the elders in the community to give envelopes of money to the youth in the community, though they have to give equally to every person, said Krystie Nguyen, coordinator of Cross-Cultural Affairs.
The table in Free Speech Plaza gave away small red envelopes with money and information about the New Year and how it is celebrated.
In Asian culture, the Lunar New Year is viewed similarly to the way most Americans celebrate Christmas, said Shaojie Qin, graduate assistant in the Office of Multicultural Affairs. However, the New Year celebrations last 15 days. These days are spent visiting a different family member each day of the 15 days, Qin said.
Because it is such a family oriented event, most of the celebrating is done at home.
But for University students, support of the tradition can be seen across campus. Many students wore red Friday, another tradition, in recognition of the New Year, Vea said.
“[The table] is really nice and informative, and it is a good way to get the word out there,” said Jason Xie, mechanical engineering freshman.
“We want to promote Asian culture on campus due to the fact that 4% of the LSU community is Asian. We just want to make our voice heard.”