Center for Student Involvement and Inclusion Celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month With The Lantern Festival 

Abbie Klein

Every year the Center for Student Involvement and Inclusion at UWG hosts a number of events to enrich students and others in the community in new cultures and traditions. Most recently on April 10, CSII hosted their Lantern Festival event, an early celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. Students that attended this event had the opportunity to enjoy new food, customs, and participate in craft activities to celebrate Asian culture.  

“May is traditionally the month we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,” said Director of Inclusion Samantha Dennis. “Many students will be gone for the summer, so the Center for Student Involvement and Inclusion is partnering with the Student Activities Council to celebrate in April.”

UWG has always planned events like these to celebrate different heritage months with students on campus. CSII planned a multitude of events for things like Hispanic/Latinx Heritage month in September and Black History Month in February. Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to celebrate AAPI, CSII has moved the festivities up a little early.

“I am happy to share that events, like the Lantern Festival, were created because students voiced they wanted to know more about themselves and others”, said Dennis “I was able to provide an experience that integrates activities, education and culture.” 

While the Lantern Festival is typically a Chinese celebration of Lunar New Year, CSII integrated several Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander cultures including traditions from Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and Hawaii. 

Upon entering the event, students were given Hawaiian leis. A traditional garment made from flowers or leaves that is worn around the neck during celebrations like graduations, birthdays and weddings. In addition to the leis, Dine West served small portions of poke for students to try. Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish made of chopped fish served on rice. It can be eaten with different toppings such as cucumber, onion, seaweed and soy sauce, just to name a few. Dine West also offered a traditional drink from Thailand made with black tea and condensed milk to enjoy with the poke bowls.

Outside of Campus Center Mr. Banh Mi, a Vietnamese food truck offered a selection of Vietnamese food like soup dumplings, fried rice, Vietnamese chicken wings and Banh Mi Thit for students to try as well. 

Chinese and Japanese traditions were spotlighted at the many activity tables set up in the Campus Center Ballroom including fan decorating and origami, both important staples of Japanese and Chinese culture.

“Students will also be able to decorate a vase for live bamboo to take home and create their own lanterns,” said Dennis. 

Similar to a real Chinese Lantern Festival, students were able to decorate their own traditional lanterns while learning about the significance of lantern color and decoration. Like the lanterns, bamboo has spiritual and cultural significance in Chinese values. The plant is a symbol of harmony between nature and humans due to its hard but flexible structure. After choosing their own lantern and bamboo plant students were able to take these home as a souvenir from the event. 

CSII had planned to have larger-than-life lanterns in the form of hot air balloons at the event but due to extreme weather this part of the event has been rescheduled to be a part of the Spring Fling event on April 24.

With AAPI Heritage month approaching, CSII hopes students can take a little bit of what they learned from the event to celebrate with other Asian Americans this summer.