Nina decorates her house with beautiful and meaningful red decorations. She has a painting of a tiger on her wall, as it is the year of the tiger. Nina has small paper lantern cutouts hanging from her ceilings and a special red Chinese New Year paper that says “福” (fu), blessings.
Nina Luo (‘22), Arcadia, California
In Shanghai, China, Nina would sit with her family to watch the “春晚” (chun wan), New Year’s Gala show until they passed out together at 3 AM. Her favorite performances to watch would be the trapeze and acrobatic shows, and the skits that made her laugh late into the night.
In the South Hutch dorm, Nina was able to hang up “春联” (chun lian), couplets, and students collaborated to detail the red paper with calligraphy. She enjoyed community dinner, especially when she greeted her friends and disappeared into the sea of red sweaters and shirts and sang together upon hearing their favorite music.
Nina was able to travel home this weekend and was surprised by the new decorations that were hung up while she was on campus. However, since the weekend fell a few days before New Year’s Day, she could not watch the gala with her family. She has appreciated the on-campus activities greatly and jokes that the tradition of giving red packets may be fun to bring here at Webb.
“[My family and I] snack on walnuts and grapes during the [New Year’s Gala] and I was responsible for cracking the walnuts,” Nina said. “Though being at Webb means that I can’t be the designated walnut-cracker at the family party, I was still able to revel in the holiday spirit at Webb.”