Vibrant reds, hot pinks and shimmering golds covered the bodies and made up the costumes that assisted the Chinese ring in the Year of the Tiger with a traditional lion dance.

The lion was unlike most that have been seen before. Its large, extravagant, yellow silk body was covered with a variety of colored fringe and had an oversized head that exhibited comical cartoon-like movements.

Sitting alone on stage with only his guitar, Yuezhuang Kang brought the sweet, complex sound of his homeland for all to hear.

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These were some of the highlights of the Chinese New Year Celebration in the Student Center Ballrooms Sunday night. The Chinese Student Association, Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars, and the Republic of China Taiwan Student Association sponsored the event, which attracted more than 300 people.

Kang, a second-year graduate student in manufacturing systems from China, said the event allowed him to show a basic part of his heritage.

I just wanted to show another side to our culture, he said. [The guitar playing] was very typical music.

The Chinese New Year, also is known as Ch’un Chieh or the Spring Festival. The origin of the festival is too old to be traced back to any one event, but it is the most important event for the Chinese. Celebrations usually last 15 days.

The new year celebration began Jan. 28. This year is considered the year of 4696 because the Chinese adhere to a lunar calendar.

Each lunar year has 354 days and 12 months, where half of the months have 30 days and the other half have 29 days. To correspond with the movement of the earth around the sun, a 13th month is added to the calendar every two or three years. Each Chinese year is assigned one of 12 animals, such as the tiger, on a rotating basis.

The Chinese prepare for the celebrations by buying new clothes and fixing themselves up at barbershops and salons, cleaning their houses and paying off debts. Then they are able to celebrate with a fresh way to start the new year.

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The day before the festival of the new year is known as Ch’u Hsi. This is a time for the family to reunite, eat a hearty meal, give out lucky money in red envelopes and stay up throughout the night to ring in the new year.

Darren Hsiung, president of the Republic of China Taiwan Student Association, said receiving red envelopes is his favorite thing about the new year celebration.

The red envelopes give me a little extra money from my parents and some of my elders, he said.

On the first day of the new year, the family offers ritual homage to their ancestors with generous offerings of food. They proceed to the temple to worship and then move on to pay new year’s greetings to their friends. Families across China set off fire crackers and perform the dragon and lion dances.

Colors also are very significant in the Chinese culture. Nearly every color of clothing and decorations have a deeper meaning. Red is often found during joyous occasions, such as the Chinese New Year, and the color could be found in abundance in the Student Center Ballrooms. Red is thought to symbolize wealth and prosperity, but black is never to be worn during the 15 days of the Chinese New Year, because it symbolizes death.

The Chinese New Year is linked to the myth of the beast Nian. The myth states Nian begins to prey on people the night before the beginning of the New Year. Nian would come into the villages and swallow a great many people with one bite.

When Nian finally was driven off into the forest, the action was said to cover the outside of village doors with red, because red was the color Nian was most fearful off. Later, firecrackers were added to the myth, as the sounds were thought to keep the beast away.

The celebration of ends with Yuan Hsiao Chieh, or the lantern festival. On this day, everyone gathers together to carry colorful lanterns. Fireworks and joke-telling are some of the highlights of the day.

Kang said the Chinese New Year celebration here, which incorporated many of the event’s basic traditions, helped him to not miss his family and country as much.

It gave me the feeling of getting together and the reunion, he said. It felt warm, just like home.