A bright red dragon wound its way through Butler Middle School’s auditorium delighting the crowd of nearly 800 students and family members. What began as simple school performances has grown into a beloved community tradition, Ridgecrest Elementary’s annual Chinese New Year celebration.

Having long since outgrown the school’s own multipurpose room, the event now fills the larger venue and showcases the school’s Chinese dual language immersion program through student performances, cultural crafts and traditional foods.

“We want to celebrate Lunar New Year because it’s the biggest holiday for Chinese culture,” said Rachel Rawle, a PTA volunteer who co-organizes the event with Daisy Phillips. “Since Ridgecrest is a Chinese immersion school, we celebrate their biggest holiday so our students can learn the culture.”

The celebration reflects the importance of the holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, in Chinese culture. In China, families traditionally celebrate for two weeks, concluding with the Lantern Festival. Ridgecrest’s festivities are condensed, lasting one evening and followed by an assembly the next day.

“We want students to understand the deeper meaning behind the traditions,” Rawle said. “This year, we added the assembly featuring a shadow puppet show of the legend of Nian and the story behind the Chinese zodiac race so students could understand the significance of the color red, the loud noises and traditional foods that are part of the holiday. The kids loved it.”

For many families, it’s a celebration of performances and time together to immerse themselves in culture. 

Ridgecrest fifth-grader Alana Walton performed in the dragon dance and her father, Matt, and sibling, kindergartner Finley, watched from the audience. Afterward, they made the Year of the Horse crafts.

“Enrolling her in DLI was very beneficial developmentally and definitely, it’s great to know a secondary language,” Walton said. “Mandarin is probably the most unique, one of the most difficult to learn, compared to English. It makes your brain work differently.”

Vanessa Mirabella came to watch her daughter, second-grader Cozy, perform and to give her kindergartner Enzo a preview of his next year.

“Cozy practiced at home and she was all excited for tonight,” she said. “She wanted to wear her sparkliest, fanciest dress. She said, ‘I have to wear red, Mom. I have to wear red for Chinese New Year.’”

Mirabella said DLI has shaped her daughter’s learning.

“I love she comes home and she’ll slip into Chinese every now and then. It’s becoming second nature to her and I love that. DLI expands her mind so much and sets different ways for her to learn and think. It’s such a great program,” she said.

In addition to performances and crafts, families visited calligraphers who created Chinese names for students and they sampled donated food, including dumplings and mandarin oranges, symbols of prosperity and good health. Students also practiced using chopsticks and received traditional red envelopes.

Third-grader Winnie Blake enjoyed the activities with her friends.

“I like lots of the activities and performing before the audience,” she said. “It’s fun to learn the language and play Chinese games with friends.”

The festivities reached beyond their school. Earlier in the month, Ridgecrest students also were invited to perform at the Chinese New Year celebration at the city hall.

“They did the fan dance, lion dance and dragon dance there and we met the calligraphers who were willing to come to our event. We had a lot of local businesses sponsor and give us donations, which was really great and much appreciated.”

Although the Year of the Horse already is underway, planning for next year’s celebration has already begun.

“We start planning in earnest in November, but we already have ideas for next year,” Rawle said. “It’s a fun community event.”