Afraid of the legendary monster’s annual visit to devour children, Mengshi He used to wear red clothing every day for weeks before the Lunar New Year.
Growing up in Beijing, He knew the mythical tale of Nian, the monster that terrorizes towns on the eve of each coming year and fears the color red.
But the first-year bioengineering student said she has outgrown her childhood fear and loves the Lunar New Year Festival, which is celebrated in various countries and lasts for 15 days.
Tonight, a Lunar New Year Festival will be held on the Hill to introduce residents to the holiday.
To incorporate different cultural aspects of the holiday into the event, student performances will include a Japanese drumming group, lion dance and traditional Chinese music.
Asian food and games, such as a Vietnamese gambling game, will also be provided, said Gerald Wang, the primary organizer of the event and a third-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student.
“I definitely wanted to bring this to the Hill not just for people who do celebrate it, but also for people who normally don’t,” Wang said.
In China, the New Year is the biggest event of the year, and houses are decorated with small lights, candles and paper cut-outs, He said.
She said families get together on New Year’s Eve, and the entire country watches a four-and-a-half hour annual show on television.
Very close to midnight, people pour into the streets to light firecrackers and continue the celebrations that began earlier in the afternoon.
The holiday ends with the Lantern Festival 15 days later, when paper lanterns adorn trees and street lights. The moon is full, and He said it never seems as big or as beautiful as it does that night.
But this year, midterms and schoolwork have cut into her time, and she may not be able to celebrate the holiday.
She said she loves the traditions she grew up with, but different Chinese provinces celebrate the Lunar New Year differently, as do other countries.
In Vietnam, people clean their homes right before the new year and not right after, for fear of sweeping away good luck, said Jasmine Nguyen, external vice president of the Vietnamese Student Union and a third-year international development and global studies student.
Families prepare traditional dishes and take food to the altars in their homes to ask their ancestors for a good year, Nguyen said.
Of their many foods, the Vietnamese make two cakes called “banh chung” and “banh day,” she said. One is shaped like a square and symbolizes the earth, while the other is round to symbolize the sky. The food serves as a reminder of where everything originates.
After moving from Saigon, Vietnam to Little Saigon in California, Nguyen said she realized that while the holiday is alive in this country, it is more Americanized and not as large scale.
Festivals she has been to have traditional foods and activities, but she said they also feature games not found in Vietnam.
Kristina Truong, a second-year history student and student leader involved with planning the Lunar New Year Festival tonight, said the event will be more educational than traditional, and the activities will represent many cultures.
Though the event on the Hill will not include traditional firecrackers or too many decorations due to fire hazards, Wang said the core of the holiday will remain preserved because the Lunar New Year Festival is about people coming together, and the residential community will have that chance tonight.