[中文版本]
Every year during Lunar New Year, Zaidao classmates organize a New Year's service event for the Chinese elderly around us. This has become a tradition for us, and we hope to have new ideas for the event each year. In past years, when celebrating the New Year with the elderly, we have made Lunar New Year's care packages/cards for the elderly and organized a Spring Festival performance. This year, Doris Wang and I decided to try something new. During the Lantern Festival, we solved riddles and organized an array of arts and crafts at a senior center.
On February 19th, 2024, Zaidao classmates held the Lantern Festival event at Heritage House. Loneliness is a common issue for the elderly in nursing homes, especially during a family-central holiday such as Lunar New Year, so we wanted to spend more time with them.
To start the event off, Doris and I wished the elderly a happy Lunar New Year and introduced the Zaidao website to them. We heard that many of the elderly here enjoy guessing riddles, so we prepared many lantern riddles for them. Each Zaidao student held a lantern and a riddle, and after reading the riddle, the elderly would raise their hands to guess. Those who answered correctly would receive a lantern from the students. Unexpectedly, the elderly were very enthusiastic, with many opting to yell out the answers without even raising their hands. The room was filled with joy and eager participation; the lanterns quickly awarded to the winners of each round.
Our second activity was to do arts and crafts with the elderly. My mother recently went to China and brought back a variety of diy paper lanterns. We placed some lanterns on each table, then each Zaidao student went to assist a table of seniors with the lantern making. Since it was the Year of the Dragon, all the lanterns were in the shape of dragons. Making the lanterns was actually quite a simple process, but seeing the elderly proudly holding their own handmade lanterns gave the Zaidao students a great sense of accomplishment. After finishing, everyone took a photo together with their lanterns.
We originally planned to make tangyuan (sweet rice balls) with the elderly, but unfortunately, we didn't have enough time. So, we boiled some store-bought black sesame tangyuan in the kitchen, and after dinner, we gave each elderly person two tangyuan. Everyone enjoyed the tangyuan and had a happy Lantern Festival.
Zaidao's Lantern Festival this year was very successful and brought smiles to many seniors at Heritage House. The Zaidao students felt a great sense of accomplishment and everyone was very satisfied with the event.
