At CODE, we’re all about bringing the community together, and this Lunar New year, we had the perfect reason to celebrate. Lunar New Year is a special time of year for our Asian community and is celebrated across the globe and among many of our residents. While traditions vary across countries and cultures, the prominent ones include dragon/lion dances, lantern festival and eating traditional food that have meaning behind them. This year, we organised a special event at our Fairfax site in Coventry to celebrate this day with our CODE community- and we decided to go all out!
From a free bar and Baiju luge, to karaoke, to mahjong and lion dancers, there was something for everyone. Creating a space where everyone can experience the energy and joy of the celebration right here at CODE. Our residents also got to enjoy a number of fun additional activities including:
Meet the Ponies
When we say we go all out, we mean it! We arranged a meet-and-greet with Moonie and Lollipop, the adorable visiting ponies representing the year of the horse. Attendees got to pet them, snap photos and enjoy some quality time with them as our guests of honour.
Crafting
Everyone got creative with some lantern making, something widely associated with Lunar New Year and used to conclude the 15 day celebration. Students also created wish jars: we provided different coloured stones that had different meanings- they simply added them to their jar to manifest wishes for the new year.
Dumpling Making
Food plays a huge part in Asian culture, and during Lunar New Year, specific traditional foods have meanings. In this case, dumplings symbolise wealth (because they look like little money bags) and so it is encouraging wealth by eating it during this time. We had a hands-on dumpling making class where attendees were taught how to make them by our wonderful staff members Sunny and Juan. And of course, they got to eat some yummy dumplings after as well.
Keep an eye out for our next events
Liked the sound of this? Want to take part in our next social? We regularly host events with something for everyone, whether your prefer a proper party like this one or something a little more low-key like our Breakfast Club.
Join us at our next one- discover our future events here.
