Observe the ‘Year of the Pig’ at the Chinese New Year Celebration

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

The Chinese Club at Radford University is wrapping up its New Year celebrations on Feb. 23, with the Lantern Festival, or Yuan Xiao.

Chinese New Year celebrations start six days before the lunar year with cleaning and food preparations. Yuan Xiao, or Lantern Festival, is the first full moon of the lunar year.  Traditionally, when celebrating this holiday, people eat round dumplings and send well wishes for the New Year before going back to normal schedules.

The Chinese Club wishes to bring the community together at this final celebration and to offer a glimpse into the Chinese culture on Radford University’s campus.

The celebration, now in its 19th year at Radford University, is at 4 p.m. on Feb. 23 in the Davis Performance Hall and the Scartelli Atrium, located within the Covington Center. Radford University will have 15 distinguished guests from Shandong University, which is one of the largest universities in China.

“This magical event will be composed of various performances with talented individuals ranging from age 4 to age 68. I hope to provide a glimpse of Chinese culture and celebration to the Radford community,” said I-Ping Fu, associate professor of Chinese. “I am extending the Radford hospitality to those 15 Chinese Scholars because they are away from home. I thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce Radford University to our foreign guests and to allow [our guests] to see our beautiful campus and wonderful people.”

The Chinese New Year is the largest holiday in China and is referred to as Lunar New Year because the Chinese people use the traditional Chinese calendar, which calculates the dates by the moon. The current year is the "Year of the Pig."

Traditionally, the first day of Chinese New Year begins between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20. This year, the dates of the Lunar New Year is Feb. 5. The Chinese New Year celebration officially ends on a full moon, which is called Lantern Festival, or Yuan Xiao, the 15th day after the Lunar New Year.

The Chinese New Year celebration at Radford will feature a number of performances, including: Radford University’s Asian Pop Culture Club, the Blacksburg Chinese School, Dragon Tiger Eagle Wushu Gongfu, 15-50 Dance Group and the Blacksburg Senior Group. The event is free to public. Refreshments will be served afterward.

Feb 20, 2019
Max Esterhuizen
540-831-7749
westerhuizen@radford.edu