Tag Archives: Chinese New Year

Gonzo’s Top Five: Happy Lunar New Year! Plus loads of car fun

Entertainment, Gonzo's Top 5, Local Entertainment, Recreation, , , , ,

By John D. Gonzalez
WKTV Contributing Writer

I love February. It’s Black History Month. The Chinese New Year begins. And the Olympics are back.

All are in this weekend’s Gonzo’s Top 5, exclusively on WKTV Journal.

Here we go.

Gonzo’s Top 5

5. Forest Hills Eastern presents Seussical the Musical

West Michigan is blessed with many great high school theater programs. This weekend you can check one out as “Seussical, The Musical” is being presented at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center in Grand Rapids. The story takes you on a very familiar journey with The Cat in the Hat, who tells the story of Horton, an elephant who discovers a speck of dust that contains the Whos. Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students. More info at fhfac.com.

4. She Runs GR Training Run and Warm Up

Is one of your New Year’s Resolutions is to compete in She Runs Grand Rapids (formally Gazelle Girl)? Even though the race is not until May 1, you can start training now as part of World of Winter in downtown Grand Rapids. A training run is planned Saturday (Feb. 5) with a 30-minute warm-up and distances of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 miles. Hot chocolate, coffee and water will be available afterward. Meet at 9 a.m. at 555 Monroe. More info on the World of Winter website at worldofwintergr.com/events.

Other World of Winter events: Outdoor Olympic Watch Party at Studio Park at 7:30 p.m. Friday; Black History Month Walking Tour at 2 p.m. Saturday; Movies on the Piazza with live action “Mulan” at 1 p.m. Sunday and “Cruella” at 4 p.m. Sunday.

3. Lunar New Year Storytelling

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Foundation with a free event featuring outdoor storytelling, storybook reading and dragon/lion dancer performances from. 2-4 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 5) at the Studio Park piazza. Studio Park which is located in downtown Grand Rapids at 123 Ionia Ave. SW. More info at facebook.com/grasianfoundation.

2. Winter Motoring Meet

Looking for a fun outdoor event? The second annual Winter Motoring Meet features more than 400 classic vehicles on Saturday (Feb. 5) at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners. The event includes scenic rides in several of the museum’s antique cars and trucks, as well as a special exhibit of vintage snowmobiles, a professional ice carving exhibition and outdoor games. Guests can enjoy an outdoor fire with food and beverages, too. Also, feel free to bring your own snowshoes or cross-country skis for a trek across the 90-acre campus. For more info including admission, go to gilmorecarmuseum.org/events/winter-motoring-meet.

READ MORE: Winter fun — Gilmore’s Winter Motoring Meet, vintage snowmobile show set for Feb. 5

1.Michigan International Auto Show

Car lovers, it’s back! The 24th Annual Michigan International Auto Show presented by Gentex takes place this weekend at DeVos Place. The show features 20 manufacturers of trucks, SUVs, crossovers, electrics, hybrids and performance vehicles. Plus, those classic cars in the Million Dollar Motorway of vintage and high-priced cars of the Gilmore Car Museum. Hours are 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults and $5 for children ages 6-14. Learn more at GRAutoShow.com.

That’s it for now.

As always, I welcome your input and recommendations for events to include in my Top 5 list. If you have something for me to consider, just send me an email at michigangonzo@gmail.com.

Have a great, safe weekend.

John D. Gonzalez is a digital journalist with 30-plus years of experience as a food, travel, craft beer and arts & entertainment reporter based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also co-hosts the radio show and Podcast “Behind the Mitten,” which airs at 6 p.m. Sundays on WOOD-AM and FM. Follow him on his journey to discover what’s next. You can find him on Twitter as @MichiganGonzo, on Instagram @MichiganGonzo and Facebook at @GRGonzo. He also relaunched his YouTube Channel. Email him story ideas and tips at michigangonzo@gmail.com.

Snapshots: Icy fun and Chinese New Year traditions

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, ,

May your days be as glittery as a diamond, may your friends be as good as gold, may your heart stay as green as an emerald, and may your soul remain as pure as a pearl.

Chinese New Year Greeting



By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Ice, Ice Baby

The World of Winter continues with the Valent-ICE which runs through Feb. 14. The event will feature more than 80 ice sculptures. As part of the World of Winter, there is also some incredible installations including the Singing Christmas Tree on Canal and Impulse on Monroe which is the light-up seesaws. Also tonight, from 3 – 8 p.m., will be a virtual Chinese New Year celebration hosted by the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Foundation.

LOVE.ART. HISTORY

Looking for something a little warmer this weekend? In honor of Black History Month, Woodland Mall is hosting a pop-up art exhibit by ArtXchangeGR and showing the documentary “Between the Trees,” about Idlewild, Michigan. The documentary was produced by WKTV Volunteer Rose Hammond at the WKTV studios. The event runs through Sunday, Feb. 14.

Mainstee’s Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts received more than 300 masks for the “Stay Safe” exhibit, some came from as far away as California. (Supplied)

Go on a Stay Safe Adventure

Mainstee’s Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts received more than 300 masks for its current exhibition “Stay Safe.” Masks came from as far away as California and Colorado and as close as West Michigan as local resident Carol Grant and her grandson contributed to the project. Viewing is by appointment. The exhibit is up through Feb. 28.

Photo from Pxhere.com

Seeing Red

More than a quarter of the world’s population is celebrating Chinese New Year. From envelopes to lanterns to clothing, the color of the celebration is red. Why is that? According to the legend, Nian, a beast terrorized the villagers eating the crops, livestock and children. That is until the villagers learned that the beast was afraid of three things: fire, noise, and the color red. Red remains China’s good luck color as it is believed to scare away spirits of bad fortune.

Happy Lunar New Year: The Year of Rat starts on Saturday

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, ,
Students wearing áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese outfit. Photo supplied by Adrian Ɖặng Bảo Oánh.

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

This Saturday marks the most important and celebrated holiday of the year for cultures rooted in a lunar calendar — the Lunar New Year.

Widely referred to as the Chinese New Year, many other Asian countries honor the special holiday, In fact, the Chinese often refer to the new year festival as the Spring Festival. In Vietnam, it is called Tết. In Korea, it is called Seolial. Most of these countries observe the Lunar New Year from when the new moon rises on Jan. 24 and concludes with the full moon on Feb. 9. There are some Asian countries, such as Thailand and Laos, who observe the Lunar New Year in April, usually around April 13.

This year, 2020 is the year of the rat according to the Asian Zodiac. While the rat is not considered by most as adorable, it ranks first on the Asian Zodiac, meaning it starts the 12-year cycle of the Asian Zodiac. The rat, as described on the Vietnamese American Community of West Michigan’s website page, is clever, quick thinkers, successful in reproductive and survival, but content with living a quiet and peaceful life. People born under the Rat hold a strong community value and depend on each other.


To learn more about the Asian Zodiac, click here for a story by resident Adrian Ɖặng Bảo Oánh.



While Asians celebrate the Lunar New Year in different ways, all celebrations have one common feature: family reunions. The Lunar New Year is in fact one of the biggest migration of people, with hundreds of thousands of people returning home to see their family.

Tết, the Viet Lunar New Year is Saturday, Jan. 25. Photo supplied by Adrian Ɖặng Bảo Oánh.

Tết: Viet Lunar New Year Celebration 2020


One of the longest running community Lunar New Year celebrations is the Vietnamese community’s annual event. The event is Saturday, Jan. 25, at Wyoming’s Knights of Columbus Hall, 5830 Clyde Park Ave. SW.

Hosted by the Vietnamese-American Community of West Michigan, the Children Tết Festival is from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. and includes games and fun for the entire family, such as face painting, a dragon dance, animal balloons, music, foods, and arts and crafts. 

Starting at 4 p.m. is the traditional ceremony which will run until 6:30 p.m. The program will include the New Year’s message, the ancestors commemoration ceremony, the Lion Dance Welcoming the Year of the Rat, and community awards. The New Year Concert and Dance, featuring numerous local performers, is from 7 to midnight.

This event is free and open to the public. Authentic Vietnamese food will be available for purchase. According to organizers, the festival is designed to highlight the richness and diversity of Vietnam by featuring a variety of traditional performances including the dragon dance, traditional musical instruments, children dances, games and much more. 

For more about Tết, check out this article written by resident Adrian Ɖặng Bảo Oánh by clicking here.


WKTV will be at the annual Tết event. Check the wktv.org website for air dates of the annual celebration.

Students prepare for the Dragon Dance. Photo by Erika Townsley.

Lunar New Year Festival 2020: Grand Rapids


“We spend most of the day with our families,” said Kim Nguyen who with Kathy Bui are organizing the Lunar New Year Festival in Grand Rapids. “Just like Americans do at Christmas and other holidays, during the day we spend time with our family and in the evening, we attend community events.”

It was the reason the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Festival, the Grand Valley Asian Student Union, Zeeland Christian Schools, Com 616, and the Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. came together to host this year’s Lunar celebration which is set for Saturday, Jan. 25, from 5 – 9 p.m. at the community space located at 555 Monroe Ave. NW. 

“It is in a tent, a heated tent,” Nguyen emphasized.

“The festival is a community experience,” Nguyen said, adding that it is a family-friendly event. “What I am hoping is people come and see the diverse culture that we have in the Grand Rapids area.”

One the largest Asian populations is located in and around the Greater Grand Rapids area, she said. The Lunar New Year 2020 will feature a number of traditional activities representing many of the different Asian cultures. This includes a dragon dance, lion dancers, and performances from many area residents such as hip-hop dancer  Heather Truong, musician Caleb John Lawson and Friends, the children of the Lao Buddhist Temple, Lakeshore Taekwondo Academy, and the Grand Valley Asian Student Union. 

At the event, there will be a variety of traditional foods such as bubble tea along with many traditional food items such as dumplings, spring rolls, rice cakes, veggie soup, and an Asian sandwich. The event is a fundraiser for the annual Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Festival, which will be June 12.

Also at the Lunar Festival, there will be a variety of children games, traditional Korean and Japanese ones as well as painting rat piggy banks, a ring toss, and face painting.  Tokens will need to be purchased for the games and activities. For more about the Lunar New Year celebration, check out the Facebook page, Lunar New Year Festival 2002.

Tết, the Lunar Calendar, and the Year of the Monkey

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Tet 1By: Adrian Đặng Bảo Oánh

 

Most of Asia observes the lunar calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon as compared to the Western solar calendar. The celebration of the lunar New Year is perhaps the single most important and prominent event over much of Asia. Western folks sometimes mistakenly call it the “Chinese New Year” for lack of knowledge. The Vietnamese folks call it “Tết”.

 

Each year carries the sign of one of the animals in the “Asian Zodiac”. These twelve animals, in proper sequence, are: the rat, the ox, the tiger, the cat (also called the rabbit in some countries), the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat (or ram), the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and the pig. Year 2016 carries the sign of the MONKEY!

 

Since the lunar calendar staggers a bit when compared to the solar calendar, the lunar New Year usually falls into the late January or early February timeframe of our Western Calendar. In much of Asia, this would mark the beginning of spring time and, quite appropriately, the beginning of a new year, a new beginning.

 

In the modern days, people who observe the lunar New Year would limit their celebration to three days due to their busy schedules. There are still some quaint villages in Asia where people would celebrate New Year for as long as three months, in extreme cases. However, the first day is always the most important.

 

There are many aspects of the lunar New Year celebration. The Asian people politely usher the ending year “out”; then they respectfully and joyously welcome the new year “in”.

Tet 2

 

Starting a week before New Year’s eve, each household performs the ritual of sending off the kitchen gods back to heaven to report the year’s worth of happenings to the Jade Emperor (the divine God).

 

During New Year, we can really feel the seasonal change in the climate; it truly feels like a new beginning. The buds and new leaves are sprouting on trees and plants. The birds start laying eggs and animals give birth to young ones. People also join in and celebrate with the rest of nature.

 

Spiritually, it is time to look back and commemorate the family ancestors. Each person also reflects upon himself/herself to recognize the negative things and mistakes during the departed year to improve upon or get rid of, and he/she solemnly makes resolutions for the entire upcoming year. It is also time to revisit religious beliefs in each individual.

 

During Tết’s time, lower ranking family members traditionally go to all of the older or higher ranking members and present them with good wishes for the new year. In return, older folks will hand out “lucky money” in beautiful little red envelopes and also wish the younger members well. This tradition is also extended outside of the family to show respect, fondness and thoughtfulness to friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

 

The first person who enters any home after the turn of the year is believed to bring his/her good or bad luck into that home. Residents of each home are very careful about who shall be the first person to set foot into their home. People really avoid sad or unlucky subjects during this special time of the year.

 

For celebration, there are usually plenty of food and beverages of the best varieties. People set off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. The dragon dances also serve to bring luck and chase off any evil spirit from the last year. There are games that are reserved mostly for New Years time. There are also cultural shows in the performing arts discipline that are presented almost only during Tết’s time.

 

Happy Year of the Monkey. May you have tranquility in all aspects of your lives, and may all your wishes come true!