
Celebrating the Year of the Snake
January 27, 2025
• For around 15 years, the Chinese Friends of Needham have marked the new year in a celebration complete with Chinese cuisine, dancing and music.
To ring in the Lunar New Year, more than 100 families ate dumplings, enjoyed Chinese paper cutting and watched dozens of performance groups sing and dance onstage at Newman Elementary School Sunday, Jan. 19.
The annual event, organized by the Chinese Friends of Needham, provides an opportunity for the broader community “to hold tight,” president Dennis Zhang said. Residents in and around Needham connect, catch up and watch their children grow and find their talents and passions, he said.
“This is one of the best moments to start the new year,” Zhang said.

The snake follows the dragon in the Chinese zodiac, which is based on a 12-animal cycle that changes every year. The official start of the Lunar New Year this year is Jan. 29.
Just as a snake sheds its skin, people can expect transformative change in their personal lives, such as a job promotion, academic success or, for kids, physical growth in height, Zhang said.
The new year will be a big one for Olivia Ling Chang and her family: her husband will turn 40, her oldest daughter will turn 10, and they’re planning to take a trip to China this summer, she said.

Chang, who serves as treasurer of the Chinese Friends of Needham, performed a Cantonese song alongside five other local moms. Translated from Cantonese, the song’s title roughly means “The Years of Friendship,” though some members of the group, including Chang, had to learn part of the language for the song.
“We speak Mandarin, but not Cantonese. Cantonese is a local dialect. Some people speak it if they’re from the province, but not for most of us,” Chang said. “So it’s fun. It’s something to do together outside of our usual mom life.”
Chang’s daughter Natalie Wang also performed a Chinese dance on stage last Sunday. For Chang and the larger Chinese community, Needham’s celebration is “the biggest of the year,” she said.
“Performing for each other and really enjoying our kids’ performances and also our fellow adults’ performances is a big part of that,” she said. “It brings joy. It’s a way for us to start the new year, based on the lunar calendar.”

Members of Graceful Dancer, a Newton-based adult performance group, posed for photos in front of a backdrop before their stage time. Their dance portrayed a blooming flower to “share the happiness and welcome the spring,” member Cathy Huang said.
Joyfulness and excitement fills the air around the new year, Huang said, and channeling that energy into dance, in the company of the local Chinese community, is special. For Huang, who is first generation, the holiday is like “a big party” and a return to her roots, she said.
“The main purpose is we are going to exercise and also express our culture,” Huang said. “We are proud because we are Chinese, and we are part of a group that has gathered together to celebrate that and the new year.”

Young children huddled around microphones to sing traditional Chinese songs and some modern ones, including a Chinese rendition of “Baby Shark” and “APT.,” a popular K-pop song. Older performers demonstrated their Wushu — or Chinese martial arts — skills, using plastic swords of course, while others tumbled, twirled ribbons and danced to hip-hop and contemporary music.
Organizers handed out around 400 red envelopes filled with money to kids and young performers for good luck, Zhang said. Adults traditionally give money to children around the New Year, and red is considered a lucky color.
“In Chinese, [there’s the saying] ‘Ya Sui Qian,’ which means, ‘hope they don’t grow up so fast,’” Zhang said. “It means stay cute, stay happy as kids and things like that. It’s good wishes from the adults and grandparents.”

Cindy Li sat in the audience as her 8-year-old daughter Annie performed a hip-hop routine in the auditorium. Before the dance, Li said she felt “very excited and very proud” not only for Annie’s performance but her desire to connect with her culture.
Wan Wan Zhang felt similarly as she helped her son Ethan, 5, construct a paper dragon at the crafts table. The Hopkinton family looked forward to the kids’ games, dances and candy.
Chinese New Year, for Wan Wan Zhang, has a lot to do with the food — lobster in the southern region of China is traditional fare, she said, which she will be sharing with her young son.
“It’s a tradition to have seafood in the new year,” Wan Wan Zhang said.
That spotlight on youth carried into remarks from local lawmakers, with U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss and state Rep. Josh Tarsky extending their well wishes to attendees.
“Being here and getting to see the talent and grace of your children is just one example of how much the Chinese constituents of Needham have contributed,” Auchincloss said.