6 events to celebrate Lunar New Year around the Willamette Valley

Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is determined by the lunar calendar. This year, Lunar New Year begins on Sunday.

Lunar New Year is celebrated by many Asian cultures, and there are often Lunar New Year celebrations within Asian-American communities across the country.

Here are some local events to explore Lunar New Year traditions and celebrations for the Year of the Rabbit.

UO Chinese Student Association China Night

The University of Oregon Chinese Student and Scholar Association is hosting China Night 2023 on Sunday.

The event will feature performances, food and a photo booth.

The event starts at 6 p.m. in the Erb Memorial Union Ballroom at 1395 University St. in Eugene.

Tickets are available online at ticket.uoregon.edu/uostu23/cssa. The cost is $12 for the general public and $10 for UO students.

Springfield History Museum celebration

The Springfield City Hall and Springfield History Museum are hosting a community-driven celebration of Lunar New Year on Jan 28.

This free event is open to all ages.

The celebration at the Springfield History Museum at 590 Main St. begins at 10 a.m. and goes till 4 p.m. Events include performances of erhu and oboe instruments as well as a presentation on contemporary Asian American music.

The celebration at Springfield City Hall at 225 5th St. runs from noon to 2:30 p.m. Highlights will include performances from local artists such as Eugene Taiko, calligraphy, Bollywood dance, Eugene Chinese Immersion School students and a variety of food.

At both locations, there will also be hands-on arts and crafts projects throughout the day including red envelopes, Chinese lanterns, Chinese paper cuts, salt dough dumpling folding, hexagonal baskets and origami rabbits.

UO Chinese New Year celebration

The UO is holding another Lunar New Year celebration in collaboration with the Chinese-American Benevolent Association and the UO Confucius Institute for Global China Studies on Sunday.

This Chinese New Year Community Potluck Celebration will be held at Lane Community College Longhouse at 4000 E 30th Ave. in Building 31 in Eugene.

The event is open to the public. It is recommended that attendees bring a dish to share. Attendees can eat and listen to stories about how the Chinese community celebrates the new year.

The event begins at 3 p.m. There will be lion dances, a zither performance and noodle tossing.

Year of the Rabbit Run

For the fifth annual New Year's Challenge, all are invited to participate in either a 2.023-mile, 20.23-mile or 202.3-mile event.

This is a virtual race, meaning participants can run or walk from any location. Participants can run, jog or walk on a road, on a trail, on a treadmill, at the gym or on a track. The only competition is yourself.

The event runs from Sunday until the end of February.

To enter the race formally, tickets online cost $19 per person. Once the participant completes the race, they will receive a Year of the Rabbit medal in the mail.

In addition, 15% of every entry will be donated to Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit organization that advocates for an end to child trafficking and sex trafficking.

OSU Taiwanese Culture Night

Oregon State University's Taiwanese Student Association is holding its annual Taiwanese Culture Night on Saturday with a focus on Lunar New Year celebrations.

There will be food, games and performances that represent Taiwanese culture. Oregon State students will have performances of Chinese yoyo and song. There will also be students from the Ashbrook Independent School Chinese Program performing a bamboo dance and a ribbon dance. Food will include fried rice noodles, daikon soup, tea eggs, peanut powder rolls and winter melon tea.

The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. in the OSU Memorial Union Ballroom at 2501 SW Jefferson Way in Corvallis.

The Taiwanese Culture Night is themed around the Taiwanese cabaret shows from the 1980s.

Tickets are available at oregonstate.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=1374.

Lunar New Year at Mac Market

Mac Market and Unidos Bridging Community are presenting a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday.

The market will feature a variety of Oregon Asian businesses and restaurants including Not Umami's Cooking, CHO Wines, Kayt's Kitchen, G&S Market Bentos and Wednesday Paper Co. An International Lion Dance Team will perform at noon.

There will also be arts and crafts like paper lantern animals, face painting and more.

The free celebration is open to all ages and will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Mac Market, located at 1140 Northeast Alpine Ave. in McMinnville.

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: 6 events to celebrate Lunar New Year around the Willamette Valley