NYC Schools Celebrate Lunar New Year

For the first time, New York City schools will be observing the Lunar New Year, according to a press release from Japan Society (www.japansociety.org). NYC is only the second major American city (San Francisco is the other) to include the Lunar New Year in its official school calendar, with students getting the day off on Feb. 8, 2016.

"This holiday is not about kids just getting a day off from school," said Assemblyman Ron Kim of Queens, according to Reuters. "It's about the City of New York telling hundreds of thousands of Asian Americans that their culture and heritage is part of the American fabric."

Japan Society will launch CelebrASIA NYC for the sixth year in a row on Jan. 24, with seven leading New York City Asia-focused cultural organizations taking part in the three month series with a variety of hands-on activities and workshops and programs. "Japan Society is eager to welcome the newly appointed Lunar Holiday for New York City students and kick off the CelebrASIA collaboration with Japan specific festivities and games for all ages,” says Jeffrey Miller, director of education and family programs at Japan Society.

Japan Society’s own program, New Year's Celebration: Oshogatsu, invites families to enjoy an array of activities, such as hands-on taiko drumming instruction, painting Japanese words and phrases with New Year's calligraphy (kakizome), kite-making (takoage) and drawing faces on paper while blindfolded (fukuwarai, or “funny face”). There will also be lion dancing (shishi-mai), in which a masked dancer with a flowing white mane weaves in and out of the crowd and performs daring feats of coordination accompanied by taiko and traditional flute (fue), as well as traditional rice pounding (mochi-tsuki). For more information on the events, check out Japan Society’s calendar.