{"id":161183,"date":"2026-02-19T13:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161183\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:53:10","slug":"tampa-taiko-celebrates-lunar-new-year-for-hundreds-of-students-at-tampa-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161183\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Taiko celebrates Lunar New Year for hundreds of students at Tampa Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 This week marked the start of the Lunar New Year celebration, and it\u2019s an annual tradition for Tampa Taiko to perform at the Tampa Theatre for hundreds of local elementary school students.<\/p>\n

Taiko means drums in Japanese, and some of the drums you see on stage were handmade by Tampa Taiko founder Ron Collins.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than just a show; it\u2019s a history lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were Samari drums. They would wield their biggest drums onto the field of battle, they would intimidate the enemy, they would coordinate troop movements, they would celebrate a victory,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n

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WFTS<\/p>\n

Over the past 20 years, Ron has organized some of the best Taiko professionals in the country, like Julius Mendoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cReal tight-knit community across the country, only about 300 Taiko groups exist and about four are just here in Florida,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I joined the group, it was a pleasure to learn and absorb all of this culture from around the world, Asia, China, the Lunar New Year celebration,\u201d said Mendoza.<\/p>\n

Ron is proud of the authentic nature of the performance, showing homage and respect to the traditions of the Lunar New Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see a lion or a dragon, you sometimes think of monsters, but in the Asian culture, these are really lucky creatures,\u201d said Collins, who appears on stage in an exciting dragon and lion costume.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to invent the wheel when people have been doing this for over one thousand years,\u201d said Collins. \u201cI\u2019d like to tell people we are Americans through and through, dressed as Japanese performers, celebrating the world\u2019s biggest holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

Ron said the best part is the reaction from the students and the hope that the Lunar New Year becomes an engaging topic when they return to the classroom.<\/p>\n

Collins is happy to be a voice in the community when it comes to celebrating the Lunar New Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to bring this program to schools, libraries, assisted living facilities, all types of events, creating a positive impression of a culture that is ancient,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Tampa Bay celebrates Lunar New Year<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buildings painted pink ahead of demolition to make way for 29-story tower<\/p>\n

Several buildings in downtown St. Petersburg have been painted pink to bring attention to new construction.<\/p>\n

Buildings painted pink ahead of demolition to make way for 29-story tower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 This week marked the start of the Lunar New Year celebration, and it\u2019s an annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[205,77165,276,58218,18143,77166,135,3670,137,136,77167,21265,208],"class_list":["post-161183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-abc-action-news","tag-chinese-new-year","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-lunar-new-year","tag-robert-boyd","tag-ron-collins","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-taiko","tag-tampa-theatre","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161183","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=161183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}