Forest Hills — During Northern Trails’ Chinese New Year celebration, sixth-grade teacher Yang Du paused in surprise as a student greeted him with “wan shu ru yi,” a Mandarin phrase meaning “best wishes for you,” while he was distributing red envelopes.
“Since many of the students have said the other phrase (‘Xin nian kuai le’ or ‘Happy New Year’), I was surprised when she said that one,” Du said.
Du and fifth-grade teacher Yuqi Zhao, both instructors for the Northern Trails 5/6 Chinese immersion program, organized the school-wide celebration of Chinese New Year, which is marking its 10th year at the school.
“I think the most important thing about the celebration is that it provides an opportunity for all of the students to have the chance to learn about the Chinese New Year and its culture, and helps them appreciate the differences in the culture and the language,” Zhao said. “It also connects the community in that we have parents and student volunteers helping with the event.”
Because the school has three different programs — general education, Chinese immersion and Spanish immersion — it is important for the students to understand that they are all part of one school, Du said.
“We don’t want them to feel that because they are part of the Chinese immersion program that they can’t be friends with someone in the Spanish immersion program or general education,” he said. By building friendships across programs, he added, it may help students when they are older build good relationships between the U.S. and other countries.
Luck, Good Fortune and Prosperity
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is a celebration of the new year in the lunar calendar and is celebrated in several Asian countries. In Vietnam, it is called Tet or Tet Nguyen Dan.
Since the lunar calendar follows the moon’s cycles, the start of the new year changes each year, occurring sometime between late January and early February. In 2025, the Chinese New Year was Jan. 29 to Feb. 12.
Because of winter break and parent-teacher conferences taking place at that time, Zhao said it was decided to host the school’s celebration later in February.
Classroom groups came to the school’s cafeteria, which was decorated with traditional red banners and paper cuttings that symbolize luck and celebration.
Students rotated through three stations. Du’s station had a video that discussed the history and traditions of Chinese New Year and the hot pot, a simmering meal that has been popular for centuries in China.
Du also gave each student a red envelope, usually given to children by their elders. The envelope represents luck and prosperity and often has money in it, Du said. In the ones Du had, there was a piece of Chinese candy and a red knot, another symbol of luck, good fortune and prosperity, he said.
Learning about ‘Nian’ and Paper Cutouts
The next station was paper cutting, a traditional Chinese folk art. Students cut out a pattern that was the Chinese symbol of spring and then glued it to another piece of paper. When done with the project, students were able to color a snake, the Chinese zodiac for 2025. The snake represents wisdom, Zhao said.
Since the snake was also the Chinese zodiac animal for 2013, the birth year of many students, they compared their birth years. Some students noted they were born in 2012, the year of the dragon, which was also the zodiac symbol for 2024.
The last station featured a sample of a traditional hot-pot meal of beef strips, bok choy and ramen noodles.
“It’s pretty good,” sixth-grader Hildi Sanders said of the hot pot, noting that they tried hot pot at last year’s celebration.
“It’s been really fun and interesting,” said sixth-grader Victoria Gallepos. “You get the opportunity to learn about a new culture, such as how they use the color red to ward off the beast (Nian).”
Fifth-grader Bella Zhang, who celebrates Chinese New Year at home, said she thought it was cool that the school was hosting the celebration and exposing her classmates to some of her culture’s traditions.
“I like how the teachers have been teaching students some of the Chinese words,” Bella said. “I heard some say ‘hong bao,’ which means red envelope.
“It was also nice to have the crafts and the food and share it all with the students here.”
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