Advertisement

Elk Grove to celebrate Lunar New Year after week of statewide shock, grief

Elk Grove will celebrate Lunar New Year on Sunday after a week cloaked in grief following mass shootings that have shaken California’s AAPI communities from Monterey Park to Half Moon Bay to the capital region.

The free event is from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at The Preserve at District 56, 8230 Civic Center Drive, in Elk Grove, and features lion dances, crafts and performances, as well as food and entertainment. All bring together, Elk Grove city councilman and event co-sponsor Darren Suen said, “the things that commemorate these different cultures — Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean.”

In Vietnam, the celebration is Tet; Seollal in Korea; the Spring Festival in China. The 15-day celebration of the Lunar New Year marks the first new moon on the lunar calendar, a time for family, food and togetherness.

That the Elk Grove event is in the festival’s final week nods to the family celebrations that greet the new year. Elk Grove’s AAPI population is a significant slice of one of the Sacramento region’s most diverse cities — more than 33% as of 2020, partial Census data show.

Firecrackers and smoke fill the air during the traditional Chinese lion dance at the Sacramento Chinese Of Indochina Friendship Association’s annual Lunar New Year celebration at the temple on Elder Creek Road on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, in Sacramento.
Firecrackers and smoke fill the air during the traditional Chinese lion dance at the Sacramento Chinese Of Indochina Friendship Association’s annual Lunar New Year celebration at the temple on Elder Creek Road on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, in Sacramento.

“I love that this community is so diverse,” Suen said. “The AAPI community is not monolithic, but because of this diverse community, we get to share and others get to learn about different cultures and celebrations. As a community, it’s beautiful that we have this.”

The festival’s two weeks are “the most significant days of the year. We prepare all year for this. This takes precedence over every holiday,” said Assemblywoman Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, who with Suen, is sponsoring the event.

But the pain and shock of the Monterey Park shootings that left 11 dead in the predominately Asian-American suburb near Los Angeles, on the eve of the new year and hours after thousands of people crowded its streets, are raw. Days later, came the second shock of Half Moon Bay’s mass shooting that left another seven dead. Add to the incidents the troubling tide of hate and violence directed at Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders and to be able to celebrate, to honor culture and community amid the grief, may be even more important now, Suen said.

“Anytime a community goes through a tragedy, there is a need to go through a celebration like this. It’s not that you’re ignoring the tragedy, but it is a recognition of the culture and the community.,” Suen said. “This is at the fabric of our communities and the nation. It’s important that communities appreciate what this is about. It adds importance to this type of event.”

Elk Grove police will be at and around the event, department spokesman Jason Jimenez said.

“We’re aware of what’s occurred over the last few days, so we’ll have a physical presence with people on scene and we’ll have our real-time Information center, added to the people who are (patrolling) that area,” Jimenez said. “We’ve been in communication with city officials and the chief,” saying the police presence comes “out of an abundance of caution.”