Celebrate the Lunar New Year at the Library

From last year’s flashy and energetic Year of the Dragon to this year’s mysterious and refined Year of the Snake, get ready for Lunar New Year! The holiday runs January 29 through February 12. Also known as Spring Festival, Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations of the year for many East and Southeast Asian cultures. Celebrants view it as a time to reconnect with family, honor ancestors, feast and celebrate the onset of spring.  

Year of the Snake 

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake. Those born in these years (1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001 and 2013) are often characterized as wise, charming and mysterious. They enjoy learning new things and have a deep understanding of themselves and others. However, they can be secretive and jealous at times. 

If you’d like to celebrate the Year of the Snake, we have several programs, including a DIY Craft and Celebration, plus Lunar New Year booklets in all our branches. Enjoy a color page, word search and more.   

Lunar New Year Traditions 

Like most holidays around the world, food plays a huge role in the Lunar New Year. Families kick off celebrations on Lunar New Year’s Eve (January 28) with a spread of symbolic dishes. Award-winning author Grace Lin is known for her books that highlight and honor the Asian culture. She’ll be at our Cockeysville Branch on Saturday, February 1, discussing her new book, “Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods,” which highlights the tales behind some of the most common Chinese foods. She shares with us one of her favorite foods to eat and the story behind it.  

“One of the foods that we eat at Lunar New Year is the fried spring roll. However, I admit, we tend to order it from the local restaurant instead of making it ourselves because deep frying is kind of an inconvenience. The spring roll must be fried for Lunar New Year; frying is what makes the spring roll that lucky golden color. Why is it lucky? Because a golden spring roll looks like a bar of gold—and we always want more gold at the new year! It means we'll get more gold for the year! However, the story behind the spring roll has nothing to do with the New Year or gold, but it is one of my favorites from my book: 

According to legend, the spring roll was invented because of a Ming dynasty minister. Now, this minister always got his work done much faster than everyone else. This made his peers quite suspicious, and they accused him of dishonesty to the Emperor. There was no way he could be doing all his work by himself, they claimed. The Emperor asked the minister to explain. And that was when the minister revealed he had a special gift. He could write with two hands!  And with this gift, the minister claimed he could do his work twice as fast. Of course, no one believed it—so the Emperor ordered the minister to copy nine boxes of records in 49 days. If he could really write with two hands, the Emperor said, he should be able to do it. Well, those boxes were pretty big and even with two hands the minister would have to work nonstop to finish. So he worked and worked, his hands always writing.  Now, this minister had a wife who was worried about him. “You must eat!” she said, but he replied, “I dare not let my hands stop!” so she said, “Then I will feed you!” and tried to feed him things like soup and noodles. But those were messy so he always refused. So, his wife created a new food: a rolled-up food that she could hold and that he could easily bite from while his two hands were writing. That food was, of course, the spring roll.  And it worked! The minister could eat and was able to copy all the records in time. That’s how we got the spring roll!” 

Grab a Book 

Another way to celebrate Lunar New Year is curling up with a good book that explores the cultural event. Find one here and place a hold.