FARGO — In China, the Lunar New Year celebration is usually spent with family, wrapping savory dumplings, greeting children with “hong bao” or red envelopes filled with cash, and watching CCTV’s New Year’s Gala, all while cracking sunflower seeds and enjoying fresh fruit.
For the sixth year in Fargo, the United Chinese Americans Fargo-Moorhead organization wants to bring people a taste of the celebration, but because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, on a smaller scale.
Last year, the new year’s celebration was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Jun Yang, president of United Chinese Americans Fargo-Moorhead, said the celebration is to thank area community partners, friends and their families, but is not open to the public.
The event will also be livestreamed, but details are still being arranged, Yang said.
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Starting at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, at Bethel Church, 2702 30th Ave. S., boxed Chinese cuisine for community partners who pre-ordered will be available to eat on site or take away. Although dumplings aren’t on the menu this year, each serving will have three or four dishes with a choice of noodles, steamed rice or fried rice.
After the meal, starting at 6:30 p.m. and lasting until about 9 p.m., the celebration will also feature entertainment and dances from China, Yang said.
“We wanted to bring traditional performances to the FM area and will have performances like traditional dance and modern dance and children's dance,” Yang said.
The program itinerary and introductions will be in both Chinese and English, however, the programs will mainly be in Chinese.
The zodiac symbol for 2021 was the ox; 2022 is the year of the tiger. The actual Chinese New Year's Eve is on Monday, Jan. 31.
