As a multilingual school offering instruction in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese, The New Century School honors the Lunar New Year in high style each year. Celebrating the new year and observing many of its rich cultural traditions is not only wonderful fun for TNCS students and highly anticipated each year, it also finds them eagerly speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese—as will be revealed.
This year’s Chinese zodiac representative is the Wood Snake, which heralds a year to explore, get inspired, and share your light—a nice respite from the challenging Year of the Dragon just passed. TNCS students did just that in the Lunar New Year Event held Thursday, January 30th: they explored, they got inspired, and they shared their lovely light with packed audience.
TNCS Community Sees Red!
As in, marveling at all of the beautiful red Lunar New Year decorations gracing the auditorium! Many of these decorations are actually projects that students in all divisions worked on throughout the month of January. You’ll see Chinese penmanship, history, lore, and more!
This event was planned and executed by Yan “Eve” Lui, who has lots of event-planning experience:
The whole Chinese teacher team helped a lot. Ms. Steffan and Ms. Simonetti played key roles in the planning and operating of the event. Ms. Steffan sent emails to parents for volunteers, and the parent volunteers helped so much during the event. Ms. Arelis helped to search the leftover materials from previous years. Mr. Mike helped with the decoration and the equipment setting and training for me. Here are some key points that helped a lot during the planning:
• I asked Ms Jia for the experiences that she had during the celebration last year.
• During the planning meeting with Ms. Steffan and Ms. Simonetti, we talked about my ideas and how we should adjust and suit the best expectation to current parents. There are cultural differences and social norm differences, and it is the communication that helped us to combine my former knowledge and experiences in China with the TNCS school and parent preferences.
• Ms. Simonetti also has experience in event planning. She took care of the layout of the stands in the consideration of the queueing directions. She organized the student hosts scripts and prepared a stand for putting the scripts of the hosts. She also tested the volume of the microphone to make sure that it was not too loud. She organized the shop stand to make it look appealing. She brought table cloths from home to make the table look neat and nice. She basically took care of the control of the whole operation and many details to make sure it went well.
• I intentionally encouraged more students to participate in the event. I talked to their teachers and organized them to volunteer. They were the hosts, the helpers, the photographers, the video designers… This is part of education, which is to provide real situations to practice what they have learned at school and gain experience and real knowledge. They practiced self-confidence, communication, team work, trust, courage, offering help, performing on the stage, skills of design, and so much more. One minor intention is to make sure that they all come to the event. Since they were involved they and their family had to come. This is to make sure more people come to the event, and we did attract around 120 people that night. This is a big success because all our performances are to show how much we have taught our students Chinese language and culture. (The performances, the happy new year greeting videos, and the posters on the wall are all presentations.)
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TNCS Head of School Ann Marie Simonetti gave opening remarks, introducing the event and thanking attendees:
Xīnnián kuàilè—Welcome and Happy New Year! It’s wonderful to see so many of you here as we gather and welcome in a new year filled with growth, unity, and endless abilities. . . one that we hope brings joy and meaningful connections for all of you and us. We’re excited to share this special evening with you. I hope you enjoy the performances and all of the lovely things that our students and faculty and staff put together for you as well as, most importantly, the spirit of community that makes this event so meaningful here at TNCS. Thank you for being a part of our celebration this evening.
The audience was then treated to some video footage of TNCS preprimary students practicing their Chinese lessons with Liu Laoshi (Jia), who also teaches Chinese to TNCS middle schoolers.
Next, a video of TNCS K–2 students!
Then, some older TNCS students danced onstage in traditional Chinese clothing.
A group of 6th- through 8th-graders then demonstrated “pi ying xi,” which is a traditional Chinese puppet show using paper cutout puppets and shadows to create a beautiful effect. See for yourself!
After the performances, attendees had multiple activities to choose from, including traditional craft stations, games, and food—and even an auction for merchandise! Oh, and don’t forget the photo booth!
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About the auction, Eve Laoshi explained:
We purchased products that have unique Chinese cultural features, and then it came to us that we needed to introduce those cultural features via the products to the parents as well as to generate more revenue and create an exciting atmosphere for the event as well. We also chose good causes for parents to bid on and to support our Language Immersion Program at TNCS. That is why we decided to do the auction. We had a shop stand as well to sell all other products, and most of them were sold out that night. Ms. Simonetti has experience in auction operations, and it is her wisdom to put some items together and to carry out a casual auction that suited the situation at the event. She decorated the items gorgeously on the plates and had me show the plates around the audience during the auction.
Said Ms. Simonetti:
The event was a beautiful display of community and a reminder of the transformative power of coming together. Our staff, students, and volunteers brought the space to life with beautiful artwork, traditional decorations, delicious smells, and masterful performances. But beyond that, I felt like the presence of staff, alumni, students, and families—spanning multiple generations—truly transformed the space, creating a palpable sense of connection and belonging.
Happy New Year, everyone! 新年快乐! Xīnnián kuàilè! Honor this time to renew your goals, embrace changes that align with your true self, and shed your old skin! 
Did you know that TNCS is partway through its second full turn of the Chinese zodiac? And that this is TNCS’s second snake year? TNCS launched in the Year of the Tiger, 2010. Since then, TNCS has marked many a Lunar New Year in a variety of ways!
- Year of Dragon, 2024
- Year of the Rabbit, 2023
- Year of the Tiger, 2022
- Year of the Ox, 2021
- Year of the Rat, 2020
- Year of the Pig, 2019
- Year of the Dog, 20218
- Year of the Rooster, 2017
- Year of the Monkey, 2016
- Year of the Goat (or Sheep), 2015
- Year of the Horse, 2014
- Year of the Snake, 2013
Immersed had not yet met the world for the Lunar New Year of 2012, but you can be sure that Year of the Dragon was one to behold.
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