People from all over dressed in red for good luck to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in downtown San Luis Obispo on Saturday.
“Seeing such a diverse range of people coming out to celebrate is nice to see because we're all sharing a little bit of our own cultures,” Samantha Loui, a Cal Poly student said.
Samantha Loui is part of the Chinese Student Association at Cal Poly, a home away from home. She tells me why celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year in San Luis Obispo is important to her.
“Cal Poly Slo is currently a predominately white institution and as such it's really important to provide communities and events and opportunities for students who are of minority groups to feel a part of their culture,” Loui said.
During traditional Chinese New Year, people can write down their wishes and throw them in a tree for good luck, but the Chinese Student Association improvised by creating their tree.
“You write your wishes for yourself, your family, and friends, and then you put it on the tree and it's supposed to bring you luck for the rest of the lunar new year,” Loui said.
At the event, they also had many cultural activities: stage performances, a culinary food panel, food vendors, and different cultural clubs showing how the Lunar New Year is celebrated around the globe.
“I think it's wonderful to learn about other people and what they do and how they celebrate,” Ariel Waterman, an Arroyo Grande resident who attended the event said.
Waterman traveled from Arroyo Grande just for this event.
“I'm here to feed the dragon. I've got my lucky red envelope and I'm going to put some money in it and when the dragon dances I'm going to feed the dragon, it's good luck,” Waterman said.
Saturday was also the 150th-year celebration of one of the last remaining original buildings in San Luis Obispo's Historic Chinatown, a gift shop called the Ah Louis store.
“We learn about the history of Ah Louis who was an incredible part of the community and he loved to celebrate and Palm Street was where it was at on Chinese New Year and celebrating Lunar New Year. They had big parties with fireworks and firecrackers,” Amber Karsen, event coordinator said.
William Watson is the third in his family to own the store and says it's been at least 50 years since a celebration like this has occurred in San Luis Obispo.
“As I recall this celebration today is a whole lot bigger and of course, San Luis Obispo has grown a whole lot since then and the Chinese community has expanded quite a bit,” Watson said.
