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She’s involved again with the celebration in 2025. On Thursday, Jan. 30, Qiao expects to welcome around 30 students for the New Lunar Year Celebration that she helped organize at the at 404 Gattis St. The celebration will begin at 7 p.m.

Recognized as the most important in China and a major event in many other East Asian countries, Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar Year and Spring Festival dates to about 3,500 years ago.

The festival celebrates the beginning of the new year on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This year, Chinese New Year begins on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Although the date changes each year, it is always between Jan. 21 through Feb. 20.

Hours before the Lunar Year celebration at the Arts Annex, DKU��ţӰ�� and the Duke International Student Center will sponsor a similar event at the Smith Warehouse in Bay 5 at 114 S. Buchanan Blvd. Attendees at that event will write in the calligraphy style, make their own dumplings, and sing karaoke. 

The Smith Warehouse celebration begins at 4 p.m. and ends at 7 p.m., just in time to enjoy the Arts Annex celebration that’s a 10-minute walk away.

Although the exact date of Chinese New Year’s origins is not recorded, it is believed that it originated in the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC), when people held sacrificial ceremonies in honor of gods and ancestors at the beginning or the end of each year, according to the

The Lunar New Year’s traditional celebrations include a family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, cleaning the home to sweep away bad spirits, red decorations to bring good luck, and the use of fireworks and firecrackers to scare away evil spirits, along with watching lion and dragon dances to bring prosperity and good luck during the year.

Alas, the lion and dragon dances will not be featured this week at Duke’s celebrations.

“That would be amazing if we could,” Qiao said. “They scared me so much as a child. Their faces are huge!”

The centerpiece of the Arts Annex celebration will include attendees making lanterns and red envelopes.

“Last year, we got some feedback that [making] the lanterns was too easy,” Qiao said. “I was surprised by that, but we have a harder lantern [to make]. It’s like an origami lantern.”

Qiao explained that the red envelopes traditionally include money. Not so at the Duke event, but she added, “we just thought it would be a nice way for people who aren’t able to go home for Lunar New Year. They can reconnect and feel close to those traditions.”

Qiao said that events like Chinese New Year help her meet other people who are from backgrounds across Asia.

“[Last year], it was mostly Chinese students,” Qiao said. “We had a lot of international students, and a few Koreans. So, we just want to welcome everyone who celebrates, or who is just interested in participating.”

This is the Year of the Snake, one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, whose qualities include wisdom, charm, elegance and transformation. People born in the Year of the Snake are believed to be intuitive, strategic and intelligent.

Qiao considered her peers at Duke who may feel “not Asian enough” or “too Asian.”

“I hope that this event can be a celebration no matter where you are in that journey, because I feel like a lot of Asian Americans go through that, and I also feel like a lot of international students, they’re not as welcomed as they should be, and so I’d like to provide a space for them as well, just to come hang out,” Qiao said. 

“It’s a very friendly, chill event,” she added. “We just craft and talk to each other.”