HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR: TUESDAY MARKS START OF YEAR 4693

Happy New Year, or "Gung Hoy Fet Toy" in Chinese.

On Tuesday the Chinese will welcome year 4693 of the Chinese lunar calendar, the year of the boar.

Traditionally a two-week festival, many of the activities surrounding the event are devoted to banishing evil spirits to ensure that the coming year is filled with good luck and prosperity.

Malaysian-Chinese students at Southeast Missouri State University are sponsoring a Chinese New Year dinner Feb. 3 at the New Golden Dragon restaurant in Cape Girardeau. The celebration includes dinner, the Lion Dance, fireworks and other traditional entertainment.

It starts at 7 p.m. and tickets cost $11 per person. Tickets may be purchased at the University Center lobby or at the restaurant.

The Chinese government officially abandoned the Chinese calendar in 1912, but the Chinese people continue to celebrate the traditional new year. It falls on a different date each year according to the lunar cycles.

The Chinese New Year is an important family holiday, explained Evelyn Woon, a Malaysian-Chinese student.

On the eve of the new year, families gather for a reunion dinner.

"Older family members offer sacrifices and pray to the god of prosperity, inviting him into the house," she said.

The Chinese respect a variety of "taboos" on the new year.

"It is taboo to wear all black or all white on the new year," Woon said. "Those colors signify death. Most of us will be decked in red."

Custom also dictates that food be prepared before New Year Day so that knives and scissors could be put away to avoid cutting the luck of the new year.

"You are not supposed to sweep on the first and second day of the new year," she said. "You will sweep away all your wealth and luck."

Two dances are traditional to the Chinese New Year, the Lion Dance and the Dragon Dance. Both are performed to ward off evil and to bring prosperity and good wishes, said Edwin Tia, a Malaysian-Chinese student.

"Not only is the Lion Dance performed during the new year," Tia said. "Sometimes when a business opens they will have the Lion Dance to ward off evil spirits and any other things they don't want for the business."

The Lion Dance is passed from generation to generation. Kim Yoon of Malaysia learned the dance from a friend and is passing on the knowledge to Kok Kin, also a student.

Two people perform inside the Lion costume. The large lion head is made of papier-mache and has eyes that open and close. Dancers control the head like a puppet.

"It is very complicated," Yoon said. "You have to control the head and your legs at the same time."

The dancers are accompanied by a Chinese drummer. Tia said a traditional drum is hard to find. Because they don't have one they will be using an audio tape of the Lion Dance rhythms.

Chinese acrobats are also a traditional part of the celebration.

Ken Fok of Hong Kong will demonstrate his balancing skills by spinning plates and balancing a tiny bird on a long pole.

Fok said he decided he wanted to learn the balancing skills and started spinning and balancing different things. He practices by spinning his textbooks.

For more information about the dinner, call Tia or Woon at 651-6064.