Amid gray and gloomy weather, members of the Downtown Bryan community pitched in to bring in the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Goat, in a colorful celebration.
While this festival, hosted by the Confucius Institute, is normally held near Sbisa Dining Hall, this year the celebration of The Year Of the Goat was held off-campus.
“We all said that we would help and participate and make it as enjoyable of a day as possible,” said Earlene Butcher, owner of Jim.n.i Boutique. “We’ve all volunteered something, such as I’m serving chai tea and fortune cookies in my shop.”
In addition, The Chocolate Gallery on South Main offered free chopstick lessons, Gifts & Gabs offered half off Asian inspired scarves with the purchase of one scarf, and Emily’s JimS offered a tea tasting of six different teas.
“We all try to get on the bandwagon and help make this a successful day,” Butcher said.
Outside of the Village Café, volunteers from College Station and Bryan offered different activities for children, including coloring opera masks provided by Brazos Glassworks, and Chinese Calligraphy sponsored by the Parker-Astin Arts Center.
“It’s very hard to learn calligraphy,” Ben Li, who has been learning and practicing the ancient art for 30 years, said.
Dressed as dragons of various sizes, Lee’s Golden Dragon Company performed an ancient Chinese tradition, the Dance of the Dragon.
“I wanted to promote the culture in the community,” Allen Lee, founder of Lee’s Golden Dragon, said. “So I started this in 1974. It’s a martial art, and I decided to bring it to Houston, to the community.”
The company, which has performed for the Texas A&M Lunar New Year on and off for many years, normally performs outside of buildings, so Lee said that he doesn’t mind the weather or the change in scenery.
“Anywhere’s fine, but I’m partial to the campus, with all the student life and the people,” Lee said.