RRC Polytech’s Centre for Newcomer Integration hands out lucky red envelopes for Lunar New Year
By: Alyssa Tomchak
The Centre for Newcomer Integration invited staff and students to join them for a Lunar New Year celebration on Feb. 13.
Angela Ge, an administrative assistant at the centre, says she planned the event to give international students an opportunity to celebrate while they’re away from home.
“Yearly, we get together with families, big families, in China. But here, since they are far away, we celebrate this Lunar New Year with friends,” Ge said.
Ge is originally from China where many people celebrate Lunar New Year by exchanging red envelopes (hóngbāo). For Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the red envelopes symbolize good luck, wishes, and fortune.
Ge handed out red envelopes and said she noticed students wishing each other a happy Lunar New Year in the halls at the Exchange District Campus.
“This is what I want to bring this to the department, to celebrate the Lunar New Year, because it is a different culture. People can engage with different cultures to be aware of others from different countries,” Ge said.
Ge organized and assembled the envelopes on her own time. She said she hopes the college will consider doing more to mark the occasion in the future.
“If one day the college could celebrate the Lunar New Year for the Asian students, that would be wonderful,” Ge said.
Lunar New Year isn’t a statutory holiday in Canada. But in China, many people receive up to two weeks off to celebrate the holiday and spend time with their families.
Tzuo-Jeng Chen, a business administration student, celebrates the Lunar New Year by having dinner with his family and gifting red envelopes to his children.
“Family and friends sit and eat at the round table, meaning union,” Chen said.
He says older generations give red envelopes as blessings to children and adults, which helps reinforce family bonds.
Because the Lunar New Year is based on the lunar calendar, the celebration’s start date differs each year from late January to late February. The next Lunar New Year starts Jan. 29, 2025, which will welcome the Year of the Snake.
