CSA – College Admission at Loyola

New Years Celebration: Year of the Dog

By | February 7, 2018

New Years, again? In many parts of Asia, New Years is celebrated based on the Lunar calendar rather than the traditional Gregorian calendar starting on January 1st. This year, New Years falls on February 16, 2018 and it so happens to be the year of the dog (based on the 12-year zodiac cycle). Those who are are born during the year of the dog are known to be communicative, serious, and responsible in work!

________________________________________________________

Here at Loyola University, the Vietnamese and Chinese Student Association (VSA & CSA) have put together an event to celebrate this fun and joyous holiday. Our event will take place on Tuesday, February 13 at Sr. Jean Dolores Schmidt Multipurpose Room (North and South) from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.

VSA & CSA have been planning for 3 months to bring to the Loyola community a wonderful cultural experience of New Years. We will feature cultural and study abroad presentations, a lot of Asian-based organizations, traditional games, and a prize booth. Nevertheless, it will be an event in which offers inclusiveness, educational components, and tons of fun for everyone.

In addition to all of this, VSA & CSA have worked hard to bring in traditional lion dancing for entertainment! The event will comprise of 2 performances. The first performance will open up with lion dancing. As customary, they will wake up from a slumber and dance to the sounds of the drums and symbols. To bring good luck to this event, they will perform the “Choy Cheng ” ceremony in which they will receive their lucky money. After, the students may even get to interact with them, as they are playful and social! Their second performance will be focus on-stage with many tricks as people sit and enjoy their food.

In terms of food, we have a variety of Vietnamese and Chinese options. As learned from VSA’s recent Cuisine Night event, we have ordered sufficient food to accommodate the large expected attendance and considered many vegetarian options. On top of all this, we have dessert! We will have traditional New Years cake, known as Nian Gao, cuties, fortune cookies, Vietnamese Banh Cam, and an assortment of candies. For Loyola students, this is free admission and with free food, so we hope to see many LUC students attend!

New Years is primarily a time for celebration with friends and family. It is a perfect time to get together and have fun with each other. We hope that the Year of the Dog brings you luck, happiness, and prosperity to you and success will happen throughout the year!

See YOU at our event on Tuesday, February 13 6pm at Damen MPR!

Mid-Autumn Festival

By | September 28, 2016

If you are in Chicago, you can definitely feel the change in season right now. Especially around the first and second week of September, the cool breeze swept in and sweaters were brought out to wear. My instincts told me otherwise through seasonal allergies- yes, I am sick.

With the changing of the season, the Asian culture celebrates this transition with a Mid-Autumn Festival, or more commonly for me (since I am Vietnamese), Tet Trung Thu.

This holiday was a fun one especially when I was a kid. At my church, I was given a lantern with colorful pictures with a lit candle and tassel at the bottom. I, among other kids my age, would walk around the parking lot in the evening with our lanterns listening to Tet Trung Thu Ruoc Den Di Choi song blasting on the speakers. After our little march, full-sized moon cakes were distributed to everyone and then we got to play games and earn prizes afterwards. The grown-ups would get cakes too and would socialize with one another. Imagine this memory with the full-moon so big and bright, and you’ve got a classic vision of what my Mid-Autumn festival was like when I was younger.

In high school and in the beginning of college, I strayed away from those “childish” things because I had other things I could be doing- schoolwork, watching TV, etc. Fortunately, Loyola gave me the opportunity to reach back to my roots and let me re-experience those nostalgic moments.

TOMORROW, September 29, CSA/VSA (Chinese Student Association/ Vietnamese Student Association), will host their annual MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL in Damen MPR North at 7pm.

Here, you will be able to immerse yourself into the Asian culture through learning the history of the mid-autumn festival, playing traditional games, and tasting different yummy food of Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine! As tradition with this holiday, you will be able to try out a moon cake, which is always a favorite and interesting thing to try out among people.

Here’s the promo flyer:

For a more interesting take on how people celebrate Tet Trung Thu, watch Kyle Le’s video of his time in Vietnam! It’s a really good and NEW video! Instead of individual lanterns that children traditionally walk around with, students are shown with massive, handmade float-like lanterns!

Take a look:

2016: Year of the Monkey

By | February 15, 2016

Happy New Year! If you already broke your new year resolutions, now’s a good time to start over again!

I’m talking about the Lunar New Year (February 8th, 2016)! Personally, I enjoy this New Year better than the January 1st New Year celebrations. The majority of the Asian countries celebrate the Lunar New Year in spectacular

and cultural style. But for now, since I am Vietnamese, I’ll focus on Viet tradition. To make it easy and simple, I have narrowed it down to two things you cannot have without for this joyous occasion.

Red envelopes. Money. You simply cannot forget this essential aspect when celebrating the New Year. It is customary to wish the older person something very thoughtful such as good health or success in the future. In return, you receive ‘lucky’ money. The more family members you have, the more wealthy you will become!

Lion Dancing & Firecrackers. I personally think the lions are amazing- so fluffy, energetic, and colorful. A couple of train stops from Loyola, Argyle Red Line Station, Argyle St. has annual lion dancing with real firecrackers. The lions go to every store and bring in luck to the businesses. Chinatown can be a little far from LUC, but there’s no excuse not to come to Argyle St. and immerse yourself in Asian culture.

Here’s a good video from Argyle St.:

PLUS! Loyola’s VSA & CSA are doing a New Year party next Monday, February 22, in Regis MPR at 6:30pm! Come check it out!