Far East Center’s Lunar New Year Initiative honors community

DENVER — The Far East Center’s Lunar New Year Initiative includes cultural events to honor the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander community leading up to the Lunar New Year.

Over the past eight weeks, the center at 333 South Federal Boulevard has held a series of events, including arts and crafts, storytelling, holistic health workshops and culinary events. 

The initiative was the idea of event coordinator Mimi Luong, whose family has been holding Lunar New Year celebrations for more than 30 years.

“My mom has always tried to share culture and traditions with me about the holiday,” Luong said. “This year, I hosted the Year of the Dragon Initiative, which was a series of classes leading into the Lunar New Year to share more about the cultures and traditions.”

The two-month-long program is part of a celebration that is now an official state holiday. Colorado is the second state, after California, to recognize the holiday. Luong worked with Denver Economic Development and Opportunity to develop the Year of the Dragon initiative to bring more awareness to AANHPI cultures and traditions.

“For the attendees who came to our classes, we had over 1,000-plus,” Luong said. “We were able to partner with over 38 different businesses, partners, leaders, artisans, schools and instructors to uplift and bring more of these cultures here in this community.”

According to the group, the initiative also plays a vital role in stimulating economic activity benefiting local businesses and community centers. By sponsoring and participating in these events, Luong said businesses can connect with the community and showcase their support for cultural diversity.

“Whenever we host big events like this, it brings a good amount — around 3,000 to 4,000 people per day,” Luong said. “Now that the state is recognizing the holiday it means so much more because it feels like they’re actually accepting part of our heritage and our culture.”

Business owner Virgil Dickerson is one of the pop-up vendors participating in this year’s event. He’s the owner of KREAM Kimchi, producing jars of his mom’s recipe that he’s selling at the center. He said even though he’s from a Korean heritage, he never grew up celebrating the Lunar New Year.

“I grew up in Colorado for over 40 years and I’m in a mixed household, so our family tried to assimilate and fit in with what was going on around us, so we never celebrated Korean customs or Korean New Year’s,” Dickerson said. “Now I have an opportunity to celebrate the Lunar New Year in a way that I never did growing up, and we don’t have to fit into a tiny box like we did when I was growing up, so it’s a very exciting time.”

This year, Colorado observed the state holiday on Feb. 2. It will be observed on the first Friday of February each year.

“This year is the observed Lunar New Year holiday for the state of Colorado, so we’re going to go all out and do a big celebration,” Luong said. “We hope to continue it on and uplift and bring more people to the community.”

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