The City of College Park hosted its inaugural Lunar New Year celebration Saturday at City Hall, featuring traditional food and dancing to honor a variety of Asian cultures.

The celebration, attended by College Park community members, University of Maryland students, local high school students and performers, consisted of South Asian dance and martial arts performances. The event aimed to celebrate a variety of Asian cultures, according to Ryna Quinones — College Park’s communications and events manager.

The Lunar New Year, which began on Wednesday, is a 15-day celebration starting on the lunar calendar’s first new moon. The festival is widely celebrated across many Asian cultures.

The festival commemorated the start of the Year of the Wood Snake, marking new beginnings, renewal and self-discovery.

The walls in City Hall were adorned with dragons and lanterns, while the hallways were filled with tables for traditional Lunar New Year items, such as bubble tea and red envelopes.

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Attendees also gathered to watch traditional performances, including lion dances.

Gabrielle Reddon, a junior at the College Park Academy, managed the bubble tea table on Saturday, but said she stayed for cultural enrichment. The event’s performances were “very moving,” Reddon added.

“It’s beautiful,” Reddon said. “You see a variety of different people here.”

One of the main events was the Natananjali School of Dance’s Bharatanatyam performance, a classical dance style originating in South India.

Lakshmi Swaminathan, a long-time dance teacher, brought 12 students from her Bethesda-based school to perform at the event.

“It was wonderful that we used our Indian dance to celebrate Chinese New Year,” Swaminathan said. “It shows that the world is one… it’s a truly global experience.”

Between performances, attendees were also able to learn traditional Japanese calligraphy.

Chika Sugiyama, a university alum and Tokyo native living in Washington, D.C., professionally teaches Japanese language and culture.

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Many attendees requested to learn words such as “love,” “dream” and “happiness,” she said.

“Sharing the Japanese culture to Americans … is something I always enjoy doing,” Sugiyama said.

Sarah Tang, a senior psychology major at this university, said she swung by the event on a whim to celebrate the new year with a few friends.

Tang said she typically celebrates in Germantown with family, eating longevity noodles and steamed fish to bring prosperity into the new year.

As a part of this university’s Asian American studies program, Tang said it’s exciting that College Park held an event celebrating the new year.

“It’s really cool that [College Park] is celebrating Lunar New Year because I feel like growing up, we just always went to the local mall and they had, like, a lion dance,” Tang said. “I guess fate brought us here.”