Four schools in the Roslyn Public School district, including Roslyn High School, Roslyn Middle School, Harbor Hill School and East Hills School, hosted Lunar New Year celebrations last week.

The Roslyn High School Asian Cultural Exchange Club held a Lunar New Year celebration on Friday evening, Jan. 20 at Roslyn High School. The event featured a variety of entertaining performances that included Chinese yo yo, singing and rapping, a fashion show, musical instruments and a lion dance. The entertainment was performed by students throughout the district, as well as a professional face-changing master performing the traditional art.

“Events like this offer great opportunities for our students to get a glimpse into different cultures,” said teacher and club advisor Huichee Yeh. “It was a wonderful evening for the community to come together for discovery and celebration.”

Roslyn Middle School welcomed in the Year of the Rabbit on Friday, Jan. 20 with a wide buffet of Asian cuisine. Students also had the opportunity to try character painting and lantern making.

Harbor Hill students in Suzanne Falcone’s second-grade class learned about the Year of the Rabbit with text, video, song, art and play. The students were delighted by a surprise visit from a class mother.

“It was wonderful having Mrs. Lee visit our classroom and teach us about the Lunar New Year,” Falcone said. “We read, sang songs, learned a little bit of Mandarin, played with traditional puppets and made crafts together.

East Hills students made lanterns, red envelopes and dragons. They were also visited by class mothers who arrived dressed in colorful native clothing to teach them about the traditions surrounding Lunar New Year.

“As a school community, we feel it is important to celebrate our cultural diversity,” said Jennifer Sheehan, assistant principal of East Hills. “Our students and staff spent time learning about and creating crafts centered around Lunar New Year and what it represents.”