Library hosts celebration of Lunar New Year

A bit of Asian culture, colorful, bold and musical, came to the Long Beach Public Library last Sunday, the last day of the Lunar New Year.

Two groups composed primarily of teenagers — the Ryu Shu Kan: Japanese Arts Center, of Farmingville, and the Chinese Center of Long Island, in West Hempstead — staged separate half-hour performances on the library’s second floor to celebrate the year of the Water Rabbit.

The Water Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace and prosperity in Chinese culture. The year 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope.

Long Beach has a tiny Asian population — only about 4.5 percent of the city’s roughly 35,000 residents identify as Asian. The only group that is smaller is Latinos, who comprise about 3.8 percent of the population.

Landace Montero, 73, who is Asian, was among the 40 or so people who attended the performance, She was raised in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and now lives in Atlantic Beach.

“I absolutely enjoyed this,” Montero, a marketing executive, said afterward. “This is the first time I have seen this type of celebration outside of Chinatown.”

The performance was a first for the library. There was a Lunar New Year event in Kennedy Plaza last year, a Toro Nagashi Lantern Festival, also sponsored by Artists in Partnership as well as Arts in the Plaza. In ancient China, women were not permitted to be outside by themselves, and were virtually housebound unless accompanied by a man. During the Lantern Festival, they were allowed to go outside and meet people. The festival traces its roots back more than 2,000 years, and is linked to the reign of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, when Buddhism was emerging in China.

On Sunday, the Ryu Shu Kan center, led by Gerard and Hiroko Senese, featured drumming and dancing. The teenage performers and the Seneses all wore light-colored tops and black pants. Gerard Senese said that the center teaches karate and other martial arts, as well as Asian culture.

“The Lunar cycle ends today, and in Asia it’s the beginning of spring,” Senese explained. “There they start planting in the rice paddies.” Drums, he said, are sounded to awaken the gods as people pray for a good planting season.

The performance by the Chinese Center of Long Island featured Asian music and dancing flower girls who formed a perfect circle and the end of their show.

New York City has a large annual Lunar New Year parade, and there are events celebrating the holiday in 40 or so states, Senese said. According to a flyer handed out before the performances, the Lunar New Year is observed by more than one-fifth of the world’s population, and is considered the most important holiday in China.

The 15th day of the holiday — which began Jan. 22 — is also a Chinese version of Valentine’s Day.

Nine-year-old Avellina Gallo was among the dancers, and closely watched the drumming as well. She said she had never had such an experience, and appeared giddy with excitement.

“I liked playing the big drums,” Avellina said before leaving the library with her father and two sisters.

Would she enjoy doing it again? “You bet,” she said.

But Johanna Mathieson-Ellmer, executive director of Artists in Partnership, which organized the show, “A 2023 Lunar Celebration,” in conjunction with the Long Beach Library, said the fact that the city’s Asian community is small made it all the more important to hold the event.

“It’s all about making people aware of other cultures,” Mathieson-Ellmer said. “We’re an island, but we’re not alone amongst ourselves.” The celebration was an opportunity to expand understanding among different groups and to showcase different holiday traditions, she said.

The event took place at a time of high tension between the United Station and China. Last Saturday the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had drifted across the American continent. The Chinese have condemned the action.

Nonetheless, Mathieson-Ellmer said, art took precedence over conflict at the library on Sunday.