IEC’s Lunar New Year celebration lights up the Student Centre
The International Education Centre worked alongside the Erindale Hong Kong Student Association to bring together students for Lunar New Year festivities.
The International Education Centre (IEC) hosted its first Dinner and Dialogues of the winter term on February 5, celebrating Lunar New Year alongside the Erindale Hong Kong Students’ Association (EHKSA). Lunar New Year celebrations will begin internationally on February 17 and ring in the Year of the Horse, signifying hard work, intelligence, and independence.
From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., students gathered in the Student Centre Presentation Room to enjoy a Lunar New Year-themed dinner, discussions and activities. The Dinner and Dialogues is a popular recurring IEC event, centred on celebrating and building knowledge around common celebrations and cultural foods for University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) students.
In addition to the EHKSA, the IEC worked with Studio X to create and decorate the venue, transforming it with red lanterns and table decor coloured red to symbolize good fortune and good wealth. Students also received a red envelope on their table, traditionally representing good fortune, and protection from evil spirits.
The event activities began with icebreakers, followed by a make-your-own-dumpling station, and discussions about the Lunar New Year. The night ended with dinner and traditional foods. The Blind Duck catered the event, serving sweet and sour chicken, tofu, vegetarian spring rolls, fried rice, salad, green tea, and soft drinks.
Throughout Dinner and Dialogues, attendees and staff shared insights and their thoughts on the event in interviews with The Medium.
One attendee, first-year commerce student Bernice Lam, explained, “Making dumplings is fun, it’s a really good experience to learn about.” She shared that the make-a-dumpling workshop helped students. “It’s an experience to eat food and share some ways to fold the dumplings.”
The IEC hosts monthly Dinner and Dialogue events alongside student clubs to engage not only students interested in cultural foods and traditions but also to celebrate student leaders and groups.
The IEC Supervisor of Intercultural Fluency and International Student Development, Kay Kim, established the importance of working alongside student groups for Dinner and Dialogue events. “They are the experts of that lived culture, we don’t want to misrepresent it in any kind of way. We also want to give our student groups more opportunities for leadership and more opportunities for visibility.”
Manal Hussain, Manahil Hissam, Ng’ang’a Gitau, and Farhada Khaled, IEC programming and events assistants, also corroborated this sentiment in separate interviews.
Kim also highlighted the importance of naming the event Lunar New Year. “It’s not controversial to say Chinese New Year, it is one of the many celebrations within Lunar culture… it’s a good opportunity for us to start another fun conversation about how shared and common [Lunar New Year] is.”
In an interview with The Medium, IEC Programming and Events Assistant Vera Allue shared that the next Dinner and Dialogue will take place on February 26. This event will feature a Caribbean Carnival in collaboration with the UTM Caribbean Connections club. Students are welcome to register online via Folio for a fee of C$5.
