The Asian American Culture Club (AACC) held a Lunar New Year potluck in Bing 123 on Friday, February 20th. The potluck featured food from different Asian countries and students who attended had fun. Lunar New Year took place on Tuesday, February 17th and represents the start of the Year of the Horse.
Jessica Lee ’29 is one of AACC’s student leaders, who attended the potluck. She loved seeing people outside her culture celebrate this event.
“Experiencing a potluck where others appreciated my culture was heartwarming and reminded me that culture and food bring people together.” Lee said. “As when I was younger, people would ridicule the traditions such as the dragon dance when we’d learn about it in school.”
Maddy Tao ‘29 helped serve students at the potluck as a leader of AACC
“The most meaningful part of this Lunar New Potluck was seeing students come together to appreciate food, which is such a meaningful aspect of culture.” Tao ’29 said.
The Harvard-Westlake Parent Association supplied the food. Food plays a central role in celebrating Lunar New Year and symbolizes good wishes for the coming year, like success, happiness, and wealth. Japchae is a Korean dish made with glass noodles that symbolize prosperity and longevity in the coming year.
“My favorite part of the potluck was the variety of different asian food, including some of my favorites such as spam musubi and japchae.” Jack Hong ’29 said.
Tao shared that they had difficulty setting a date for the potluck, having had to change their schedule a couple weeks before due to the 8th grade bio entrance exams. Despite scheduling changes, AACC remained committed to hosting the potluck, reflecting the importance of preserving cultural traditions within the school community, and also ended in a success.
