This Lunar New Year — the Year of the Snake — means shedding the skin of the past to Pasadena, whose neighbors up north in Altadena and Sierra Madre were devastated by the Eaton fires. The USC Pacific Asia Museum’s Saturday festival in Pasadena brought a jubilant atmosphere for families with traditional dances, art activities and a donation drive. 

Pasadena shares the same school district with Altadena and Sierra Madre, the Pasadena Unified School District, where the fires have damaged five schools. PAM organized an art drive at the festival, asking for people to donate new art supplies and gift cards to the children whose homes and schools were destroyed by the fire. 

Valentina Quezada, the education and engagement manager for USC Museums, said they reached out to PUSD to ask what kind of support the museum could give. 

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“There’s lots of different donation drives that sprung up so quickly and so wonderfully in our city that one of the things they actually asked for was art supplies,” Quezada said. 

The main festival was held in the museum’s parking lot, with a pop-up stage in the back under a large canopy with seating for around 200 people. Red lanterns dangled from the canopy while the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Association gathered backstage to perform their lion dance. 

Sanyee Yuan, who has emceed the event since 2020, emceed the Lunar New Year festival and introduced Kenneth Hui, the founder and Shīfù of the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Association. 

“The lions are going to go into the crowd here and try to give you a kiss,” Hui said to the crowd. “It’s okay. Pat it on the back. It’s supposed to bring you good luck if you touch the lion. Okay, kids? Nothing to be afraid of … Some of them are scary. I know that my granddaughter is so scared.” 

The lions, intricately designed suits for two, danced onstage to the booming beat from large, traditional drums, cymbals and a gong played slightly offstage. The canopy could not contain the lion’s attraction as many attendees stood outside just to watch from afar. 

Contrasting the lively festival at the main area were the side activities going on in the museum’s courtyard. The courtyard, designed similarly to a Chinese Buddhist temple, had a pond and small trees decorated with red lanterns and good fortune charms. 

One of the activities was a Chinese calligraphy booth, where museum volunteers taught attendees how to write Chinese characters on a square, red sheet with a thin-tipped brush and sumi ink. 

“[You] usually have to be really calm to be able to write a good character,” said Ching Ching Cheng, a PAM employee leading the calligraphy booth. “It’s sort of like a Zen practice, to calm down and have [a] clear mind.” 

The two words taught were chūn, meaning “spring” or “new beginning,” and fú, meaning “good fortune.” The tradition for these red charms is to put them on your door to bring good luck to your family for the new year. 

Bethany Montagano, the PAM director, went on stage to encourage donations for the art drive.  

“Half of the kids are living in their cars,” Montagano said. “So we really need to come together, and we need to be able to support them in any way that we can.” 

Montagano also explained how some kids who have been evacuated are overwhelmed and traumatized by big donation areas like convention centers. To help with this problem, PAM repurposed their auditorium to be a space that is more private for families. 

“It’s no questions asked. You’ve lost your home in the fire. You can grab supplies that you need and especially for kids,” Montagano said. “So we’re taking new donations and things like that so that we can create continuity, stability and community for our kids.”

This Pasadena festival that takes place every year has become more than just a place to celebrate a new year for the community, Quezada said. 

“[The festival] has really become, over the years, an event that gathers the community as a space of healing,” Quezada said. “This isn’t the first difficult time that we’ve been through where this event has fallen, but our Lunar New Year has kind of always been a great space for the community to gather together, to really celebrate, to enjoy each other, to feel comfortable.” 

Yuan said the festival has grown ever since she first emceed there online during the coronavirus pandemic. After the lockdowns, the Monterey Park shooting during the 2023 Lunar New Year caused many Asian communities to cancel their festivals, including at the PAM. 

Now, the festival is back in full swing and trying to help out the children in the community affected by the fires. 

“Students are the backbone of our community,” Yuan said. “So we do have to come together to support them through hardship and chaos.”

The PAM provided additional ways to support PUSD through a one-time donation to the Pasadena Educational Foundation Eaton Fire Response Fund, or by contacting [email protected] for other ways to support PUSD. 

“People hopefully could just take a little breather today, take a break and rest and relax and eat some good food,” Yuan said. “People can find a way to give if they have it in their hearts. What you do on Lunar New Year sets the tone for how the rest of your year will be.”