The Gryphon Gazette

By Claire Z. ‘26

Lunar New Year, which fell on February 10th, is a festival typically held throughout the continent of Asia that begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon of the lunar calendar, usually 15 days later. Because the cycles of the start and beginning of the lunar calendar are based on the cycles of the moon, the dates of the holiday vary slightly from year to year, typically beginning sometime between January 21 and February 20 according to Western calendars. A fun fact about the Lunar New Year is that the title is actually a false name given by the Western world; it is more accurately referred to as the lunisolar new year because it depends on the lunisolar calendar (lunar and solar). It’s a festival that emphasizes community, quality time with family, and respect. Ways to celebrate often vary depending on culture and family, but universally, it’s a tradition that is greatly celebrated. This year is the year of the dragon, which, in Chinese culture, predicts auspicious and extraordinary luck unparalleled in talent and excellence. It also symbolizes a year of power, nobility, honor, and success. In summary, 2024 is forecasted to bring about opportunities, changes, and challenges. 

The 2024 Crystal Lunar New Year banquet was a huge success, bringing together lots of talented performances, foods, traditions, and traditions of many Asian countries. As a community, Crystal went above and beyond to demonstrate unity as we came together to celebrate. When asked to comment on the process of preparing, Bianca S. 25’, one of the co-presidents of the Asian Culture Club and one of the leads of the festival, stated, “The process started a lot earlier to be prepared this year, based on information of precious new years celebrated. There was a master list document and [we used it] to track progress. Mr. Wolf helped a lot [by] reaching out to performers, parents, etc. It was a lot of hard work and I think the banquet was really successful.” In addition, Bianca mentioned that this year, the ACC decided to focus on a one-crystal mindset, especially during the performances. “In the previous Lunar New Year Banquet, parents played a big part. However, we are slowly starting to shift away and diversify the booths and performances. This year, we managed to broaden the search for performers in addition to adding more student involvement. In addition, this year especially, the food was really organized and ticket sales were more controlled.” Lunar New Year is celebrated in many different ways in many different households, and Bianca used her own experiences and celebrations at home to make this year’s Lunar New Year Banquet the best it has ever been. She said, “I have been doing them since I was a kid, at Crystal and at home. My family is diverse and there is a lot of merging. Seeing the Lunar New Year banquet being a merge of these many traditions is really a positive reflection and being able to share this with all people of all cultures is good. It is great to see everyone so excited.”

Here are some words from the hard-working student volunteers in this year’s booths, embracing the great student leadership of the festival: Olivia L. 25’, who was working at the South Korea booth, stated, “My favorite part about working at the booth was introducing other people to food that comes from my culture so that they’ll hopefully love it as much as I do. Me and my family usually gather to eat Korean soup that is eaten during New Year’s. After we eat, we do a cultural bowing ceremony where my grandparents give us money and wish us luck for the new year. I always love to eat kimchi as it is one of my favorite Korean foods. I really enjoyed the performances this year, and they were some of the best I’ve seen.”

Speaking of the performances, the crowd was in awe as many amazing performers took the stage by storm this year. To open the show, the annual lion dance tradition did not disappoint. Daniel L. 26’ stated, “ We dedicated lots of time and met with this instructor in SF and took lessons about 1-2 hours in the weeks leading up to it. It was hard work and we even lost some office hours but ultimately, it was a fun and cultural experience – seemed interesting and was a great way to learn about culture.” Daniel expressed his hope and excitement to perform the lion dance again next year. Danny L. 24’ added to Daniel’s statements saying, “We went up to a martial arts studio in San Francisco three or four times total, starting around a month and a half before. Practicing was a tough time because the dances were hard to line up to the beat but at the end, we made sure that performance was magnificent for the banquet.” Furthermore, he distinguished the meaning of the lion dance to him, stating, “I’ve always wanted to do the lion dance since freshman year, but due to other club obligations, could never join Asian Culture Club. It is a great way to celebrate the culture and I have always seen it growing up. When the opportunity came this year, I felt blessed to witness and learn the intricacies of the cultural dance. It is a celebration of culture and knowing where you come from in addition to just community and happiness overall.” Despite graduating this year, Danny stated that he will return to watch the performance in following years!

Another performance that really blew us all away was Brendan Wong 26’ and his Wushu group. 

Brendan recalled, “I’ve been doing Wushu since July 1st, 2018. He practices about one hour a day, but that will soon change to 2-3 hours. When asked about the significance of Wushu, he stated, “To me, Wushu means perfection, spending years practicing one form to hopefully get it so good that I can win competitions and other stuff. Also, teaching the younger kids brings me joy as well.” Additionally, he said, “For the Lunar New Year Banquet I brought in both our A team and B team. The A team consists of all the older, more advanced students such as myself, and the B team consists of all the younger (cuter) students. These people are all important to me because they are both my friends to pick up and the future of the school (especially the little ones).” The performance was extremely fun to watch and impressive, and everyone in the audience was definitely on the edge of their seats. 

The Lunar New Year Banquet was a remarkable demonstration of community, culture, and unity, with this year being better than ever. The food was excellent and diverse. A huge thank you goes out to all the student volunteers AND parent volunteers for their immense help this year. It would not be possible without the preparation of the ACC, especially the leaders, as well as everyone who came together to celebrate as a community. The performances were nothing short of perfection this year, with demonstrations of K-pop dance, the famous Little Apple dance, and many other impressive performances ranging from Wushu to dancing and even piano playing. I cannot wait to see what will happen next year!