Enjoying a lion dance and activities like mahjong, Evanston residents gathered to ring in the Year of the Snake on Sunday at the city’s Lunar New Year celebration.
Mayor Daniel Biss spoke at the event and praised the Evanston Asian, South Asian and Pacific Islander Americans group and its founder Melissa Raman Molitor for organizing the event, now in its fourth year.
“I’ve come to love this festival, which is really now a beloved and cherished part of our cultural life,” Biss said. “It is a symbol of what it is to be in Evanston — a place where we all know that not only our strength, but our joy and our togetherness, come from the fact we are truly a place where everyone is welcome.”
Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, state Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), Ald. Krissie Harris (2nd) and Cook County Commissioner Josina Morita each addressed the significance of the Lunar New Year celebration at the event.
Morita, the first Asian American woman to sit on the Cook County board, emphasized ASPA’s success in turning a holiday typically celebrated among family members into a community-wide event. She also spoke about how it helps boost awareness in Evanston about Asian American culture.
“As we come off of a number of years of anti-Asian hate, we always say that the best tool to fight hate is education and building connection,” Morita said.
The event was hosted by ASPA and partners like Evanston Pride and Main-Dempster Mile. Various local organizations like Asian American gender-based violence outreach group KAN-WIN and the Evanston Township High School Chinese Cultural Club also took part.
ASPA worked closely with the Evanston Public Library, which has hosted its own Lunar New Year celebrations since 2015 but combined its event with ASPA’s last year.
“ASPA is centered around folks of Asian descent and Evanstonians, so it felt important to pool our creative resources together,” library employee Jessica Iverson Wu said. “The ask was: let’s celebrate Lunar New Year, but specifically make sure that there’s something for the kids because we have a lot of Chinese families.’”
ASPA has continued to make an effort to expand the event by making new partnerships, such as with the McGaw YMCA, which was part of this year’s celebration.
Melissa Franada, the marketing director for the McGaw YMCA, participated in the event by helping with giveaways outside while her son taught paper crafts to children.
“One of the things that we really stand for is to be welcoming and inclusive to all,” Franada said. “And when it comes to partnerships and events, we’re really trying to build a lot of those local relationships and to be involved in the community. I think now more than ever, it is such an important way for us to all grow together.”
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