On Friday, January 27th, 2017 Penza State University was attended by many and the atmosphere there was cheery. International students helped their fellow students from China to decorate the classroom where it was planned to celebrate and talk about the festival – Chinese New Year.

The date of Chinese New Year is floating; it depends on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. This year the holiday fell on the night of January 27th to January 28th. On Saturday the symbol of the year, namely the Red Fire Rooster, officially set in.

PSU has acquired a tradition to annually hold events devoted to Chinese New Year celebration within the Cultural Marathon “Around the World in Two Semesters”. The event is organized by the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and the International Education Office, PSU. While celebrating Chinese students were assisted by their fellow students from Egypt, Turkey, Republic of South Africa and Tajikistan.

“Our Chinese students will tell about history and main traditions of the festival. PSU and China have close relationship, we perfectly understand each other. We would like to provide our students with knowledge about this wonderful country and its culture”, emphasised Sergei M. Vasin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs.

The programme of the event included songs, guitar playing, poems in the Chinese language, acquaintance with traditional Chinese costume, quiz game, national tea ceremony. The highlight of the event was Chinese song learning and master-class on Chinese characters writing.

By the way, Chinese New Year, literally translated as the Spring Festival, attracted this year a lot of guests. For example, Linda Bunk, exchange student from Germany and master at the Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Social Sciences, discovered some new things concerning this festival.

“In Germany I only heard about this holiday. I enjoyed it. That’s great that PSU offers an opportunity to learn more about other cultures. We live in the multicultural world, and it is crucially important to understand each other. This understanding springs up right now, here in the university community. I believe that it is essential to know historical and cultural features of your neighbours and friends”, Linda remarked.