The Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus’s Student Activities Board hosted a Lunar New Year celebration on Feb. 3 in the ST atrium.
The event invited students, faculty, and community members to honor the holiday’s traditions. Attendees signed up for a raffle, eating moon cakes, picking up ornaments, and getting fortunes such as fortune-telling fish.
Lunar New Year marks the arrival of spring and symbolizes renewal, strengthening relationships, and honoring ancestors. The event provided students with a space to engage with cultural traditions and foster a sense of community.
According to the former SAB President Sofia Perez, a biology major, the event was an opportunity to highlight the diversity of MC and introduce more students to Lunar New Year traditions.
“I was really excited to put on this event with SAB and my teammates to celebrate the diversity of MC,” Perez said.
One of the attendees of the event, Jasjeet Kaur Upal – or Jas, a communication and journalism major, said that she had experienced a Lunar New Year before but was enlightened on a new tradition she experienced referring to the fortune-telling fish.
“I knew about the red envelopes, but I didn’t know about that, so that was a huge takeaway, especially because of the meanings of what each fish fold means,” she said. The red envelopes refer to a common gift where people receive money during Lunar New Year.
Perez noted that Lunar New Year is not as widely recognized in Western culture and schools, making it especially meaningful to host at MC.
“Takoma Park/Silver Spring has a lower percentage of Asian students compared to the Rockville campus, so this was a great opportunity to showcase different cultures and bring students together,” she said.
According to the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, in 2024, 10.2% of the in-person students at the TP/SS campus were Asian, compared to Rockville and Germantown, which was 12.2% and 14.8%.
Lunar New Year welcomes not only Asians but everyone, regardless of race, religion, or background, by appreciating coming together as a community and being part of something much larger.
For more information about SAB, contact [email protected], SAB president Eseme Matuke at [email protected], or visit Student Senate and Activities Board – Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus | Montgomery College, Maryland.
