Description
Bounce into the Year of the Rabbit and celebrate Lunar New Year at the National Museum of Asian Art! Free attractions for all ages, including performances, demos, a curator tour, hands-on activities, and more.
The celebration will include:
- A traditional lion dance performance, 3.p.m.
- Cooking demonstration, 1 p.m.
- Hands-on crafts and activities, 12–4 p.m.
- Lunar New Year curator-led gallery tour, 12 p.m.
- Featured exhibitions Journey of Color; Rediscovering Korea’s Past; and Looking Out, Looking In
About Lunar New Year
Also known as the Spring Festival in China, Lunar New Year is a fifteen-day celebration marked by many traditions and celebrated in a variety of countries and cultures, including Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Mongolia. A highlight that often kicks off the holiday is the Lunar New Year's Eve reunion dinner. It is a feast with a spread of symbolic dishes representing abundance, all of which are said to bring good luck and fortune. The fifteenth and final day of the holiday is sometimes marked by eating tangyuan, sweet glutinous rice balls, and carrying lanterns to conclude the celebration.
In the Vietnamese and Gurung (Central Nepal) zodiac, the cat replaces the rabbit. In the Malay zodiac, the mousedeer replaces the rabbit. We also acknowledge that many Asian American and Pacific Islanders do not follow the Chinese/Lunar zodiac.
Image credit: Frolicking animals (Choju giga), Muromachi period, Japan 1392–1568, ink on paper, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, Freer Gallery of Art, F1974.1
