Students from Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical’s Chinese Culture and college English classes, invite the public to join in the college’s first celebration of the Chinese New Year, Thursday, February 17, at 4:00 p.m. on the Red Wing campus. The Chinese New Year Planning Committee, under the advisement of Instructor Yanmei Jiang, will be hosting several events relative to the celebration, which will include post presentations on Chinese culture, information booths on various topics, games, tasting of authentic Chinese food, traditional Chinese music performances, Tai Chi presentation, and a Ping-pong challenge. The Chinese Culture class is offered as part of an ever-expanding list of Liberal Arts courses that are available on our two campuses (Red Wing and Winona) and online.

The Chinese New Year - often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it is actually lunisolar - is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Despite its winter occurrence, in China it is known as "Spring Festival.”  As an important festivity in the Chinese culture it is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese Lunisolar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. The celebration of the Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most. This is the year of the rabbit.