Tag lunar new year

Lunar New Year: Year of the Snake

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January 29 marks the beginning of the lunar new year and two weeks of celebration. 2025 is the Year of the Snake according to the Chinese calendar, and folks will celebrate with cultural traditions, family reunions, and hopes for good fortune in the coming year. According to chinesenewyear.net, “The Snake, symbolizing wisdom and transformation, offers opportunities for personal growth and change.” We invite you to mark the lunar new year at the library, with classes for everyone:

Lunar New Year: What Animal Are You?
All ages.
Drop in all month to celebrate Lunar New Year! Are you a lion? An ox? A rabbit? Find out what animal matches your birth year, then decorate a paper animal to join others in this self-directed community art project. Which of the twelve zodiac animals will have the most on display? On January 31, our community art project ends and reveals which animal has the most matches.
Jan 2 – 31 at HCLS Savage Branch
ongoing during regular hours

Lunar New Year Celebration
Families, all ages.
Celebrate Lunar New Year with stories, songs, and a craft.
Wed, Jan 29
2 – 2:45 pm
HCLS East Columbia Branch

Lunar New Year Fest
For families. Registration recommended at bit.ly/Lunar2025
Experience the rich traditions of the Lunar New Year with live performances, engaging activities for all ages, and educational presentations about the holiday’s cultural significance. Savor traditional snacks and drinks while connecting with friends and neighbors at this community collaboration.
Bring your family and friends to welcome the Year of the Snake in a joyful, festive atmosphere!
Sat, Feb 1
1 – 4 pm
HCLS East Columbia Branch

And you can always practice your language skills at:

World Languages Cafe
For teens and adults. Register at bit.ly/languagescafehcls
In collaboration with the Columbia Association, the World Language Cafe takes place at the East Columbia 50+ Center and HCLS Miller Branch. The World Languages Café (WLC) provides a venue where people meet to practice a world language with fellow community members, facilitated by a native or fluent speaker of that language.
Over the years, the WLC has featured languages including American Sign Language, Chinese Mandarin, Dutch, French, Hebrew, Irish Gaelic, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. If you are interested in volunteering as a language table host, please contact diane.li@hclibrary.org
4th Tuesdays; 7 – 8:45 pm
East Columbia 50+ Center

2nd Thursdays; 7 – 8:45 pm
HCLS Miller Branch

Three traditional Chinese performers, playing an instrument, dancing, and singing.

Global Neighbors Series: Lunar New Year

madammommy 1 Comment
Paper cut image of a panda.

The staff here at the Miller branch have had such fun highlighting the cultures of the different countries from which many of our community members come through our Global Neighbors Series. Not only have we put in a lot of work to display the different traditions of the countries we have spotlighted but our wonderful community members have volunteered their time and talents as well to exhibit their cultures by performing their traditional dances, music, martial arts, recitation, and crafts for us. Through the Global Neighbors series, our community has had the chance to peek into our neighbors’ lives and celebrate our diversity. We believe the more we know about each other’s cultures, the better we understand each other to create a more cohesive community. 

 We learned about Korea in May, about India in October and we will get a glimpse of the rich cultural heritage of China as we celebrate Lunar New Year with one of the largest demographics in Howard County. Howard County Library System is partnering with Chinese Parent Association of Howard County (CAPA) to bring to you traditional Chinese music and dance, senior choir, Peking Opera, tai chi, wushu (another form of Chinese martial art), Chinese calligraphy, and Chinese paper craft.

We invite you to join us on February 3 at 2 pm at Miller Branch to enjoy the performances by our community members and celebrate Lunar New Year in Global Neighbors Series – China.

Register for the event. Registration is preferred, not required. 

The picture shows wooden tables and chairs, as if in a cafe, with a clock on the red brick interior wall surrounded by a variety of wooden rectangular clocks painted with the flag emblems of various countries.

World Language Collection & Lunar New Year

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The picture shows wooden tables and chairs, as if in a cafe, with a clock on the red brick interior wall surrounded by a variety of wooden rectangular clocks painted with the flag emblems of various countries.
Photo by Farzad Mohsenvanda at Unsplash.

by Mai-Leng O.

Welcome to Howard County Library System’s World Languages Collection! 

Howard County is a diverse and multi-ethnic community where the population comes from a myriad of countries across the globe. The vibrant, multiracial population makes our county an exciting place to be. With the growth of these demographics, HCLS began to enlarge its World Languages collection, consisting of print literature and DVDs, to support the reading and viewing needs of all residents. 

Presently, the print collection consists of many languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Spanish, and several Indian languages such as Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Urdu. The World Languages DVD collection consists of languages ranging from Albanian to Zulu. Many of the DVDs have English subtitles, so non-speakers of the language can appreciate and enjoy movies and documentaries from countries around the world. 

In addition to the physical World Languages DVD collection, we offer streaming video options through the Kanopy and Hoopla platforms. You just need a library card!

We invite you to visit our branches to borrow and enjoy our World Languages print and DVD collections, or visit us at hclibrary.org to access the streaming platforms. Happy reading and watching!

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with these upcoming events:

Lunar New Year: What Animal Are You?  
Mon, Jan 23
all day
HCLS Glenwood Branch
Family; all ages. Drop In. 
Celebrate Lunar New Year at the Glenwood Branch! Are you a lion? An ox? A rabbit? Find out what animal matches your birth year, then decorate a paper animal to join others in this self-directed community art project.
Visit our classes and events page here for more information.

Dim Sum of Crafts 
Mon, Jan 23
11 am – 12:30 pm & 2 – 3:30 pm 
HCLS Miller Branch
Ages 4 & up. Drop In. Allow 30 minutes.
Celebrate the Lunar New Year with a variety of crafts. For more information, visit our classes and events page here for the first sessions and here for the second session.

Mon, Jan 23
2 – 3 pm 
HCLS Savage Branch
Ages 3 & up. Ticketed. Allow 30 minutes.

Visit our classes and events page here for more information.

Mai-Leng Ong is the Senior Materials Specialist at Howard County Library System. She holds a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

The cartoon image says "Year of the Tiger" in a variety of languages, with a smiling tiger extending his paw towards the viewer, with three gold lanterns hanging above him against a red backdrop.

Lunar New Year Celebrations

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The cartoon image says "Year of the Tiger" in a variety of languages, with a smiling tiger extending his paw towards the viewer, with three gold lanterns hanging above him against a red backdrop.

Welcome to the Year of the Tiger! The Lunar New Year is the most important social and economic holiday for billions of people around the world. Tied to the lunar-solar Chinese calendar, the holiday was originally observed as a time to honor household and heavenly deities and ancestors. Today, Lunar New Year brings friends and family together for feasting and festivities in China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Mongolia, and other countries all over the world.

This website, recommended by our presenters, offers a helpful guide where you can discover more about everything from food and drink to clothing and decorations for Lunar New Year celebrations. In addition, we have an assortment of books and other materials available at HCLS to help families learn and celebrate.

In recognition of this significant holiday, HCLS is celebrating with an online class, Learn About the Lunar New Year Celebration, in partnership with Howard County Chinese School. A panel of middle and high school students and parents share the histories and traditions of the Lunar New Year celebration in a variety of Asian American Pacific Islander sub-communities. Join us on Saturday, Feb 5 for a combination of short presentations, Q&A, and interactive educational games with prizes.

Additional upcoming children’s classes with Lunar New Year-themed sessions include:

Please join us!