To usher in the new year watch this message from António Guterres, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations.

D219’s Chinese language teachers, Ms. Dove, Ms. Hsing, and Ms.Yan share some great information with everyone:

While this holiday is often referred to as Chinese New Year, many other Asian cultures also celebrate this holiday.

If you’d like to read about the New Year Celebration today, please see below:

China: “Chinese New Year”  or “Spring Festival”

Vietnam: “Tet”

Korea:  “Seollal “

The Lunar New Year is also celebrated in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Tibet, Indonesia, the Philippines, and many other Asian communities around the world!

Here is additional information and insight from NN Math teacher, Gary Chu:

Interested in traditions and superstitions? Welcome in the new year with some dos and dont’s!

Thinking about food (because I definitely always am…)?? Here are Eater’s 20 Essential Chinese Restaurants in Chicago. But you can always support your local, small mom and pop Chinese takeout joint!

If anyone is interested in learning their Chinese zodiac sign? NatGeo has a kid-friendly page here.

But while it is a time of celebration, cleansing, prosperity, and good health, the Asian community is in pain.

Though some news outlets have started to report this week (only because of a massive push from social media), there has been a dramatic uptick in anti-Asian attacks and crimes across the country. In addition to the verbal abuse and attacks that have spiked since COVID-19 made its way stateside last year, there have been of burglaries and attacks on the elderly walking the streets, 19-year-old (Christian Hall) was shot and killed by PA police while he was having a mental health crisis, a graduate student (Kevin Jiang) from Chicago was murdered on the streets of Yale’s campus, and so many more unreported accounts of pain and trauma.

Depending on your social media feeds (or if you even have any), you may not have heard about any of this. But our students (and our API, Asian & Pacific Islander, staff) have; we’ve been talking about them in class for the past week or so. It’s weighing heavy on many.

Thanks for always listening, learning, and working to strengthen the solidarity between groups, particularly between the Black and Asian communities. Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous start to the lunar new year <3