Drums, chopsticks and candles helped ring in the Chinese New Year on Saturday at the Spartan Village Community Center.
The Lansing Buddhist Association held a Chinese New Year celebration with the theme "Spiritual Environmentalism for World Peace."
The theme expresses the group's concern for the world, while integrating Buddha's teachings into members' lives and practicing them.
The group makes each New Year's celebration special, with different presentations.
The schedule of events this year included singing, sign language, a skit, chopstick dance and candle-lighting ceremony.
Lo-Hua and Lo-Han Yuan, 11 and 13, respectively, danced with chopsticks and both said they "love to dance." They attend a local Chinese school on the weekends to learn traditional Chinese dancing.
Their father, C.P. Yuan, is a member of the association and said he participates in most of the events they put on.
"They have done a lot of these events to help out people. It made me feel like I should be a part of it," he said. "The things they do motivated me even though I'm not very religious. It's just wonderful to get involved."
Making people aware of Buddhism and introducing Chinese traditions was the focus of the night. The group urges members' friends from all ethnic backgrounds to come and enjoy the programs.
After the program, they served dinner with a variety of traditional Chinese food such as spring rolls, fried rice, tofu, clementine oranges and dessert.
Lina Wu, also a member of the association, said the entire group worked very hard to put the celebration together and has been planning it for months.
"We have many American friends who told us they liked our New Year's celebration and our food," she said. "We provide information to help other people learn about Buddhism."
Wu was in charge of the video presentation, which gave the audience some background information about Buddhists and told their story and beliefs.
Wu said they translated the Chinese into English so everyone would be able to understand the video. It took them two weeks to add the subtitles.
"We feel as though we are contributing to the community with our events," she said.
