Each year, the Lunar New Year is rung in by Asian Pacific Islander Desi Student Services, the Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS), the Modern Languages and Literatures Department in the LMU Bellarmine College for Liberal Arts, and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) registered student organizations. This year, Loyola Marymount University welcomed the Year of the Horse on Thursday, Feb. 12, on Lawton Plaza through kimbap, storytelling, cultural demonstrations, and festive games inspired by APIDA traditions. LMU's event also welcomed middle school students from Grace Hopper STEM Academy to attend Lunar New Year on LMU's campus and partake in the activities.

Lunar New Year signals the beginning of the lunisolar calendar and the arrival of spring. An important holiday in many countries, this event is also widely celebrated in China, Bhutan, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam. According to the Chinese animal zodiac, 2026 is the Year of the Horse. While official dates may vary, this celebration draws strong ties to reuniting with immediate and extended family.

Lunar New Year at Lawton Plaza celebrates the rich diversity within our community, highlighting how each family and culture observes the holiday in its own distinctive way - from the food to the traditions, and even the date of the celebration. Students from across the APIDA RSOs and those who work for APIDSS and OISS shared their experiences on why Lunar New Year is special to them. Colin Kim '26, a psychology major from La Canada Flintridge, California, who works for APIDSS and is the secretary for Han Tao, shared how Lunar New Year is always a time of love, gratitude, and healing for many Asian cultures. "I always spend Lunar New Year with my close family, which involves my grandparents, parents, older brother, and younger brother," said Kim. "We spend the whole day together, early in the morning preparing food such as tteokguk, mandu (dumplings), jeon, and more, which may be chaotic, but is a time for bonding in the kitchen as we pleat dumplings. A lot of love flows through the room as we all sit at the dining table to gather around the food we have prepared, where we laugh about old stories of our childhood to someone's suspiciously pleated dumpling that exploded while being boiled."

For Sarah Nguyen '26, an information systems and business analytics major from Vietnam, who works for OISS and is currently a senior advisor for Vietnamese Student Association, the celebration this year was extra special because it's her last one at LMU. "As an international student living far from home for almost seven years, Lunar New Year means much more to me than just a holiday because it is part of who I am," said Nguyen. "It is the celebration I always share with my family, which makes it especially important to me. It represents family, belonging, and the traditions that shaped me growing up. Even when I celebrate it thousands of miles away, the rituals, food, and small moments of connection help me feel grounded in my identity and remind me where I come from. For Vietnamese people, Lunar New Year, which is also called Tet Nguyen Dan, is the time of the year that everyone in the family gathers together to celebrate and refresh for a new year. However, the best Tet tradition that I enjoy the most is lì xì (lucky money). I have the opportunity to visit all of my family to wish them health and luck, and then, I could receive a red envelope as a symbol for happiness and luck."

APIDA RSOs from across the diaspora hosted interactive experiences that share how their communities celebrate the Lunar New Year, including:

• Nikkei Student Union (NSU) hosted Mamemaki (Bean Throwing), a traditional Japanese practice where beans are thrown at oni (demons) to drive away evil spirits, bad luck, and illness, symbolizing renewal and protection for the year ahead.
• Korean American Student Association (KASA) hosted Hanbok coloring and Yutnori where participants learned about traditional Korean attire through hanbok coloring sheets and played yutnori, a classic board game often enjoyed during Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year).
• Han Tao hosted a red envelope making and toss game where participants could create and decorate their own red envelopes with auspicious phrases. Then put them to use in a friendly toss game and the first to land five envelopes in the basket wins.
• Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) hosted Truyền-Truyền hosted a traditional children's game using balls and chopsticks, commonly played during Tết celebrations.
• Chinese Student and Scholars Association (CSSA) hosted a table where participants learned about 12 Zodiac memory cards including the zodiac animals of the Lunar New Year through a fun and interactive memory-matching game.
• The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures hosted a table with reading change, riding horses. Participants could explore I Ching's eight trigrams and popular Chinese idioms connected to the Year of the Horse and themes of transformation.
• Nā Kōlea helped participants create bracelets to welcome the New Year with intentions of good fortune, happiness, and gratitude.
• The Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) had participants compete to collect mini fish and pineapples using chopsticks. The player with the most wins, symbolizing abundance, as whole fish are traditionally eaten during the New Year.