1. Lunar New Year is also called Spring Festival (春节 Chūn jié) in Chinese tradition. It means the first day of the lunar calendar that cycles through 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac. This coming year will be the Year of the Horse, which begins on Tuesday, February 17, 2026.
2. The purpose of Mass Greeting, one of the biggest annual events at CAIS, is to celebrate the Lunar New Year and embrace Chinese culture with CAIS community members. The majority of Mass Greeting performances are designed and planned by Chinese classroom teachers with Lunar New Year as the main theme.
3. The 2026 Mass Greeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 12, 2026. The program will start at 9:30 a.m. and will end at around 11:15 am.
4. The most important element of the Mass Greeting is “Greeting with Auspicious Words,” a welcome in which students, faculty, staff, parents, and grandparents take the opportunity to wish each other a wonderful new year.
All students :
祝老师 马年平安 ; 祝长辈 马年吉祥
All teachers:
祝大家 马年如意
5. 红包 Hóngbāo — the red envelope is a must-have Lunar New Year tradition. The younger generation receives Hóngbāo with good luck money from the elders or seniors as a gesture of well wishes for the new year.
6. Dress code: traditional Chinese style outfits and clothes in red are the most popular. Other brightly colored outfits are also welcome. Traditionally, white clothing is not worn during the Lunar New Year because in Chinese culture, the color white is associated with funerals. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that white clothes should be avoided during the Mass Greeting.
7. There will be a lion dance and symbolic firecrackers (reusable plastic hand clappers are used to create sound resembling that of firecrackers).
8. The celebration period of Lunar New Year ends with the Lantern Festival (元宵节 Yuán xiāo jié) on the 15th day of the lunar year, which will be Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Previous Mass Greeting Videos