Celebration to offer performances, interactive booths, food, and cultural performantces<\/p>\n
By James Sloan<\/a>, Rogue Valley Times<\/a><\/p>\n The Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association will bring some of the countries and customs of Asia together for the Lunar New Year celebration. Rogue Valley residents will have the opportunity to join in the festivities and learn more about those cultures while kicking off the Year of the Fire Horse throughout downtown Jacksonville.<\/p>\n The 21st annual Lunar New Year celebration includes cultural performances, interactive booths, food, activities and more for visitors of all ages.<\/p>\n The Lunar New Year celebration is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, and is free to attend.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be in four different locations, the (Jacksonville) New City Hall grounds and upstairs, the Jacksonville Community Center, the Jacksonville Library and Art Presence Art Center,\u201d said Jeresa Hren, president and founder of the Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association and longtime organizer of the event. \u201cWe\u2019re anticipating at least 28 cultural booths in city hall and we also have at least 12 presentations and at least five stage performances, so there\u2019s a lot to see.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s celebration will have representatives for Japan, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and China, each showcasing their cultures through performances, hands-on education or by other means.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s learning how to play the popular Chinese tile-based game Mahjong or witnessing the lion and dragon dances performed each year with colorful costumes, there will be plenty to soak in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just happy to be able to create a space where tradition, creativity and community come together to celebrate something unique, popular and fun.\u201d Hren said. \u201cThis is a very hands-on and interactive festival; you can play games and talk to performers and take pictures and see the lion and dragon dances and ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Chinese zodiac calendar, 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse which is generally seen as volatile and transformative.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful and represents energy, movement, charisma, independence and intensity,\u201d Hren said regarding the zodiac.<\/p>\n In honor of the horse, organizers will be bringing in special guest and artist Kevin Yeh, known for his expressive splash ink horse paintings.<\/p>\n Yeh is the third generation in his family of artists and continuing the painting traditions, and he\u2019s visited the Rogue Valley in the past with art shows at the U.S. Hotel in Jacksonville, the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland and more, Hren said.<\/p>\n Yeh will be offering live demonstrations as well as conducting a brush-painting workshop during the event at Art Presence Art Center.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think the demonstration will draw a lot of people to see how his art came about and his family ancestry and tenacity,\u201d Hren said.<\/p>\n For more information on Yeh\u2019s demonstrations and to register to attend, visit art-presence.org\/february-kevin-yeh<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another major draw of the Lunar New Year celebration is getting to see the lion and dragon dances performed by students of St. Mary\u2019s School, taught by a master of dance typically from the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland or Seattle.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople just love that; what we do is invite a master down and take them to St. Mary\u2019s School and recruit 20 to 30 kids to learn the dances and go for it on the day of the festival,\u201d Hren said.<\/p>\n Additionally, University of Oregon\u2019s Museum of Natural and Cultural History will come down from Eugene with a booth and educate visitors on multiple parts of Asian history, especially in Oregon.<\/p>\n For Hren and other organizers, watching the Lunar New Year celebration grow from a tiny event in the early 2000s to a big-time draw for the region has been encouraging.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gratifying to see the interest the public has in this very unique fest; that\u2019s why we do it,\u201d Hren said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fellowship and using creativity and relationships is what makes it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n The event is also a major opportunity to introduce people to the deep and ancient history of numerous Asian cultures including art forms, traditions and cuisine.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t do these things, our children will never learn about the outside world,\u201d Hren said.<\/p>\n To learn more about the Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association and the Lunar New Year Celebration, visit socca.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reach reporter James Sloan at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebration to offer performances, interactive booths, food, and cultural performantces By James Sloan, Rogue Valley Times The Southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-160910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}