Jericho’s Chinese New Year Celebration

On February 10th, Jericho hosted a Chinese New Year festival to celebrate the Year of the Dog.  Luckily, the foreign exchange students were able to attend this celebration and watch various Chinese performances. Julia, my exchange student, found it very convenient that the MC’s of the event were able to speak both Chinese and English. This inspired her to continue studying English and hopefully come to America for her education.

Over the course of just two hours, we were able to watch the many aspects of Chinese culture. The occasion started off with a bang, with an amazing martial arts performance. These young talented performers were doing flips and kicks. Their intense concentration showed their many years of training and dedication.  Dressed in stunning martial arts clothing, each child was able to perform a display of amazing tricks to the crowd.Modern day Chinese music has become more westernized than traditional Chinese music. This music and dance expresses the merge of our two cultures beautifully, while showing our diverse culture.  As always, there were many traditional dances performed such as fan dance and sword dancing.  These multiple variations each have their own interesting and unique aspects that make them special. With the fan dance, there was structure along with grace; and along with the sword dance, came power and training. To watch all of these dances performed at such a young age, showed me how the Chinese culture is being shared throughout many generations.During the show, two school administrators entered the stage dressed as Chinese emperors handing out red envelopes to the children. This fun surprise represented the tradition of handing out red envelopes on Chinese New Year. These envelopes symbolize great fortune and wealth to the children in the new year.Multiple acts such as, the Chinese opera and the army reenactment explained some of China’s history.

I am so thankful that I was able to take Julia along with the other exchange students to this event to celebrate the diverse Jericho culture and our welcoming society. The exchange students were really happy to see how inviting the Jericho community is and felt very comfortable here.

To see other photos from this event, click the link below-

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nppgktLuH9DZkT352