The Chinese Spring festival or Chinese New Year is a very important festival for the Chinese and many Asian countries because it serves as the beginning of the new year on the traditional Chinese calendar.
On the 19th of February 2019, Confucius Institute at University of Ghana (CIUCC) organized its second Chinese Spring Festival on UCC campus. The venue was elaborately decorated in red as the color red symbolizes joyous moments as white is to Ghanaians.
As part of the event, students were given gift coupons called “the star coupon” upon registration for the programme. The coupons were used to buy a slot to participate in the various activities scheduled for the day. Activities included chopsticks competition, tug-of-war, character writing competition, Chinese handicrafts making, badminton and Chinese chess. Participants who competed in the activities were awarded with stars which they used to buy items including Chinese snacks, Chinese facial masks, Chinese toffees and Chinese foods such as jiaozi, baozi and spicy shredded potatoes.
Over 500 students from the university community attended the event. Participants took the opportunity to learn at first hand, how the Chinese celebrate their festivals and also to taste Chinese foods. The Spring Festival served as a medium for CIUCC to further disseminate information on its cultural and language programmes.