Chinese New Year event celebrates Year of the Snake
January 22, 2013
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Confucius Institute at Purdue will celebrate the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake on Feb. 8.
The Chinese New Year begins Feb. 10. The snake is a significant symbolic figure in Chinese myth that represents success, intuition, focus and discipline, says Wei Hong, professor and director of the Confucius Institute. People born this year are believed to be creative, intelligent, like challenges and have a charming personality, she says.
The Feb. 8 New Year's reception is 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Purdue Memorial Union, Room 118. It is free and open to the public. Chinese food will be served, and the event will feature Chinese music, New Year's games with prizes and calligraphy. The Confucius Institute Dance Troupe will perform a traditional Chinese dance and students from Purdue Theatre also will perform a lion dance in costume at noon. The lion dance, often mistaken for a dragon dance, is a Chinese tradition that is more than 1,000 years old and is often part of New Year's celebrations and other traditional festivals.
The Confucius Institute at Purdue is one of 400 such institutes worldwide that are sponsored by the Chinese Language Council International to develop relationships and understanding between countries.
Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, apatterson@purdue.edu
Source: Wei Hong, 765-494-3859, hongwei@purdue.edu
