The 548 students of James Madison Primary School celebrated
PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Above: Lucy Gao, a second-grader at James Madison Primary School, performs the Chinese fan dance with her classmates at the school in Edison on Feb. 7. Below: Sarah Zhong, a James Madison Intermediate School student, performs a Tibetan dance at the primary school. The primary school celebrated the Chinese New Year with an assembly featuring a Chinese fan dance, a lion dance, and the Tibetan dance celebrating the Year of the Rat. the Chinese
New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, with traditional dances and crafts.
Linda Pham, a member of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization [PTO], along with parents Qiuxia Lai and Yu Renee Wang organized the event for the students – kindergartners through second-graders – Feb. 7, which translates to the Chinese year 4706.
The Chinese calendar goes by the lunisolar – combination of the lunar and solar calendars – which scholars have proclaimed is the oldest surviving calendar system in the world.
The large gym was decorated with festive red lanterns and happy wishes written on red paper.
“Do you know what animal we are celebrating for the Chinese New Year this year?” Pham asked the students.
The students yelled “Rat!” – but not without some distaste for the rodent. Pham tried to reassure them, however, that “rats” – people born in the year of the rat – are actually known as “charming, imaginative and quite generous.”
The rat, or sometimes called the mouse, is the first sign on a 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The rat is roughly equivalent to the sign Sagittarius.
Some of the famous “rats” include Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election, who served as a U.S. Navy pilot for 23 years; Mary Tyler Moore, an actress best known for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; Al Gore, who was vice president of the United States under President Bill Clinton; Richard Simmons, a fitness personality who promotes weight-loss programs; John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of President John F. Kennedy and a journalist and publisher; and Prince Harry of Wales, son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Rats appeared in the 2007 Disney Pixar film “Ratatouille,” where a rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family’s wishes and the obvious problem that he is a rat. And the leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Splinter, is a mutated rat.
Some students and faculty were dressed in festive red clothing, which is traditionally worn on Chinese New Year. It is believed that red will scare away evil spirits and bad fortune.
Under the direction of Qiuxia Lai, the nine-member dance troupe, made up of first- and second graders, performed a Chinese fan dance, and Sarah Zhong, who attends JamesMadison Intermediate School, performed a Tibetan dance.
For a month, the students – Zhong, Raisa Baraka, Diana Chen, Diana D’Souza, Lucy Gao, Jewel Hu, Sanjana Nair, Leena Prabhakar,Michelle Ran and Esther Zhang – spent their afterschool hours practicing for their performances.
When asked how it felt to perform the fan dance in front of their classmates, all the girls, ranging from 6 to 8 years old, said it was fun.
Kin San Ng, a parent who owns Person to Person Karate in the Colonia section of Woodbridge, and parent Haichao Wang performed the lion dance, which was a big hit with the students.
“Wake up, lion!” yelled the students.
The bright red glittery lion slowly opened his eyes, and in the process of the traditional dance, the lion ate a head of cabbage. Then, without warning, the lion suddenly spit out pieces of the cabbage onto the students, which brought laughter and screams.
The lion dance, which originated in China close to a thousand years ago, is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic a lion’s movements in a lion costume.
Mayor Jun Choi joined the students in the festivities, asking them which one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac applies to them.
Most of the students were born in 2000, 2001 or 2002, making them a dragon, a snake or a horse, respectively.
A dragon is known as being enthusiastic, a perfectionist, charismatic, and demanding. A snake is known as being a thinker, self-confident, intuitive, but sometimes pessimistic. A horse is known as being hardworking, anxious, independent, but sometimes moody.
Choi asked the students if they could guess what animal he was. After several guesses, including a dragon, Choi told the students he was a pig on the Chinese zodiac, which was the animal the Chinese celebrated last year.
This brought laughter from the students, and a smile to Choi, who said afterward that it probably would have been better if he had said “year of the boar.”
The children learned that their fellow students of Asian descent went out to eat dinner the night before to celebrate the eve of Chinese New Year.
All the students received red envelopes with gold coins in place of traditional money.
“When you go home, ask your parents to put money inside the envelopes,” Pham told the students.
During Chinese NewYear, red envelopes are given by married couples or the elderly to unmarried juniors, or from parents to children.
During the event, Pham recognized Maxine Lee, PTO president, for donating the crafts and advice, parent Fei Tian, for obtaining a donation from the Chinese Cultural Foundation for the event, Beth Greenblatt, curriculum resource teacher, Kevin Milton for taping the event, and the custodians for their support.
Gina Foxx, who has been the principal of James Madison Primary School for three years, said the event is really a grassroots effort among the parents.
“The parents have held this yearly even before I came to the school,” she said. “They have put this whole program together. We have such a diverse school, and all this is welcome. We want to celebrate everybody.”