January 22 marks the start of the Lunar New Year, celebrated by many Asian and Southeast Asian cultures including China, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Philippines, and Malaysia. Each lunar year is represented by one of 12 zodiac animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig) and 5 elements (earth, water, fire, wood, and metal). This year will be the year of the rabbit element wood. Newton will have three community opportunities to celebrate:
- TONIGHT, January 18 at 7PM: Celebrate Asian Lunar New Year at Newton Free Library, in-person.
- Sunday, January 22 (Lunar New Year day), 12PM-3PM: The New Arts Center in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Society of Boston will host a Community Cultural Day Lunar New Year Celebration. Register here.
- February 4 at 6PM: The Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association (GBCCA) will host its 2023 Annual Lunar New Year Celebration.
While these lunar new year events provide opportunities for the community to join in a public celebration, many Asian students and teaching staff do not have the opportunity to celebrate the lunar new year traditions with their families. Since 2018, Newton Public Schools (NPS) has recognized Lunar New Year as an observance day or a Category 2 Holiday — where students may be excused from school, and homework and tests are discouraged. Nevertheless, students report feeling pressured not to miss school and note that homework and tests are still given.
Recent Newton South High School graduate, Amy Cheu, and four other Newton South students — Jaeden Lim, Jocelyn Wu, Lyanna Tran, and Wayne Chan — are leading efforts to make Lunar New Year a recognized school holiday in Newton.
Only three school communities in Massachusetts currently recognize Lunar New Year as an official school holiday (Category 1):
- Brookline was the first to add Lunar New Year to its school calendar in 2020 (celebrated in 2021).
- Recognizing changing demographics in the community, Hopkinton added Diwali to its list of Category 1 holidays in 2019 and added Lunar New Year and Eid-al-Fitr to its school holiday calendar last February.
- Wayland followed in May.
After organizing Lunar New Year celebrations at Newton South HS with her fellow Asian Students Club members, Amy realized how important Lunar New Year is to many students and their families, particularly in honoring their cultural heritage. She talked with teachers at her school, who encouraged the students to talk with Ward 3 School Committee member Anping Shen. The students created two petitions: the first one in 2021 (now closed) and a new one in 2022 (currently active), and the Newton Education Support Network – Chinese American Association of Newton (NESN CAAN) created a petition to support their efforts.
According to 2020 Census Data analyzed by the Institute for Asian American Studies, UMASS Boston, Newton’s Asian population has increased by 50.4% since 2010, with 16.6% of the population identifying as Asian and the majority of those identifying as Chinese and Korean alone or in combination with another ethnicity. In this presentation (which includes results from a student survey) and statement created in preparation for meetings with school officials, demographic data from NPS and the Massachusetts Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education suggest that Newton’s Asian student population has increased since 2018. In 2018 the student population was 12,928 with 18.3% identifying as Asian, and by 2022, the student population was 11,974 with 20.2% identifying as Asian. In addition, NPS’s Asian faculty is the third-largest in the state behind Boston and Lowell.
After a series of meetings with teachers and School Committee members Anping Shen and Paul Levy, Amy met with Interim Superintendent Kathleen Smith, and in October, she addressed the School Committee at their meeting during the public comment section (watch NewTV video, begins at 33:38). According to Amy, the School Department intends to start with a small group to look at the proposal and survey the community for feedback. It may also include adding Diwali, Festival of Lights (usually celebrated in October or November) as a Category 1 Holiday.
Tammy Tsikar — a Newton South parent, NESN CAAN member, and organizer for the Newton Free Library Lunar New Year event — is very proud of this student-led initiative and in particular, the work Amy has done. She said, “We need to work hard to preserve our culture, otherwise our identity will get lost. Many do not understand the significance of Lunar New Year or that different parts of Asia celebrate differently.” She spoke about the difficulty for kids to observe the holiday while others attend school, as students feel pressured that they will be missing out on their studies. Tammy’s daughter, Grace, who is a junior at Newton South and founder of a Tibetan Club at the school, produced Lunar New Year Celebrations in Newton, a video to help inform the community about how Lunar New Year can be celebrated.
Amy acknowledged that it took years before Brookline added Lunar New Year to its school holiday calendar but hopes that Newton Public Schools will act more quickly.
NOTE: In Newton there are:
- Three Chinese Schools: The Newton Chinese School, Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association, Newton Cantonese School;
- One Korean School: Korean School of New England;
- Three Chinese churches: Boston Chinese Evangelical Church, Boston Taiwanese Christian Church, Lincoln Park Baptist Church;
- Three Korean churches: Korean Pilgrim Church of Boston, Boston-West Korean Presbyterian Church, St. Antoine Daveluy Parish at Corpus Christi.
