Bright red and gold decorations line the Lawn, giving central Grounds a pop of festivity and color for the New Year. Attendees flood in and out of various Lawn Rooms, chatting over dumplings and carrying tea. Suddenly, a drum rings through the Rotunda and the Lion Dance begins, marking the start of the Lunar New Year Celebration.
Saturday, the Outreach committee for the Class of 2026 Fourth Year Trustees partnered with Lawn residents to host the University’s first Lunar New Year tradition on the Lawn. The event kicked off at noon with a performance from Laughing Dragon Kung Fu, a Charlottesville Lion Dance group. Once finished, dozens of participants could enjoy classical music played by Vmajor — a University music group — while they weaved through five participating lawn rooms, each with differing activities centered around celebration.
The Lunar New Year celebrates the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year in the lunisolar calendar. While it is a widely celebrated holiday in China, various other countries celebrate it, such as Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia and other Asian countries.
Born in China and raised in Memphis, Annie Zhao, Trustee Vice-President and fourth-year College student, said she would celebrate the Chinese New Year by making dumplings with her family. For her, the holiday represented tradition, culture, belonging and a feeling of togetherness. Although she acknowledges that everyone celebrates the holiday in a different way, she believes that it is united by a common goal.
“We all have a common goal of celebrating family and positivity and love, and every country just does it in a different way,” Zhao said. “At the end of the day, you'll notice all these different cultures really aren't that different. Like, we're doing the same thing after the same mission.”
This year, the Class of 2026 Trustees offered activities in participating Lawn rooms that aimed to reflect this sentiment of community and optimism. In Lawn rooms four and five, participants received red envelopes, enrolled in a Labubu raffle, played games and enjoyed Matchas for Mexico City, a University club that sells matchas and donates their proceeds to anti-human trafficking efforts. In Lawn rooms 30, 34 and 43, attendees painted lanterns, received dumplings and tea from a bar and enjoyed Vietnamese noodles, fried rice and Bánh Ú, a traditional sticky rice cake, specially made for the event by the newly opened Mai Tea, a restaurant in Charlottesville.
At 12:30 p.m., drums echoed through the Lawn and the Lion Dance began. Bright colored dragons performed their practiced choreography, dancing in front of the Rotunda before weaving their way through the crowd, involving the audience into their show.
For fourth-year College student Amy Bley, the Lion Dance performance was her favorite part of the event. She was impressed by their colorful costumes and appreciated the care that went into the performance. Bley had first celebrated the Lunar New Year when living at the International Residential College, and she was glad that this event expanded beyond the dorms and was able to involve a greater portion of the University community.
“I think U.Va. kind of thrives on the diversity that we have, and so just kind of expanding on that and getting the whole U.Va. [and] greater Charlottesville community involved, especially like in front of the Rotunda, I think, is really special,” Bley said.
Aimee Lu, Outreach Chair for the Class of 2026 and fourth-year Nursing student, is in charge of highlighting different cultures and backgrounds in the community as a part of her responsibilities for the Trustees. For Lu, being a part of Outreach has been an enriching experience, and she has loved learning about her peers’ cultures and backgrounds. Lu has also appreciated the opportunity that Outreach has given her to share her Chinese culture with others.
“I come from a Chinese cultural background, and I have always wanted to show that in our community,” Lu said. “I wanted to be a voice for my country’s background, and so I thought that this was a great way to start that, and that's why we have the Lunar New Year event.”
Saanvi Jha, Matchas for Mexico co-president and second-year College student, had never celebrated the Lunar New Year before this year, and she was excited to be involved. Her club had participated in previous cultural events, so when Outreach connected for this event, Jha was excited to contribute and experience how people celebrate different holidays.
“I’ve never really celebrated or experienced this before, so I think it just really opens up new experiences to people who maybe have lived in smaller towns, people who haven't really traveled much, who haven't experienced a lot [or] learned about different cultures,” Jha said. “I think it really just teaches people a lot, it makes people more aware.”
Lu echoed Jha’s statement. As Outreach Chair, she hopes that this event increases representation and shows individuals that the University celebrates people from all cultures, especially with the current political state of the U.S.
“There’s people at U.Va. that care about their culture and who they are and who they represent, and I think that is so important, especially during these times where a lot of people don't feel like they're represented and protected,” Lu said. “My committee especially has done such a great job taking spaces that people are unfamiliar with and sharing it with other backgrounds.”
Zhao said her culture has been a large part of her identity. She said she was appreciative of how this event allowed her to share her heritage with neighbors who may have never participated in the Lunar New Year traditions before.
“It’s just a really great feeling that I’m able to involve them in my culture … I’m involved in everyone else’s culture on the Lawn, and it’s a really great time,” Zhao said. “The Lawn is like my family at this point, my neighbors are my family. And so I want to include my family [in] the things that I want to do with my family.”
For Chinese students at the University, this year’s Lunar New Year celebration on the Lawn provided much joy in being able to share traditions with other students, and there was no better location to do so than the heart of the University.
“For me, the Lawn is the heart of U.Va, and so to have that space and share it and intertwine U.Va culture with our backgrounds is so special,” Lu said. “I'm a big hoo, we're all big hoos like, we just, we love U.Va., and we love our backgrounds. And to see it all intertwined together, it's just so magical.”
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