Articles tagged: holidays and celebration
column: U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and Frances' Farewell--let us keep the conversation going
Posted: Sep 25, 2011The University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. As usual for an academic department, they have all sorts of lectures and films and art exhibits and concerts and ... Read more »
.jpg)
column: Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
Posted: Sep 11, 2011The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is this Monday. That means mooncakes! A harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese (Zhong Qiu Jie), Vietnamese (Tet Trung Thu) and Korean (Chusok) festival that celebrates the end of ... Read more »
.jpg)
column: From Band Camp to Ramadan - finding strength, skinniness and similarities
Posted: Aug 21, 2011At the annual Band Camp concert at Interlochen a few years ago, my friend Shih-yi joked, “This would be a good day to rob Ann Arbor. Half the town is here.” After a summer of ... Read more »
column: Thinking of peace at the Buddhist Toro Nagashi after the terrorist attack in Norway
Posted: Aug 07, 2011Two weeks after the Obon Festival, a Buddhist holiday to remember and celebrate one’s ancestors, during which spirits are said to come home to visit the family for two weeks, comes the Toro Nagashi, a ... Read more »
column: Dancing to summer music outdoors and for the Japanese American Obon festival
Posted: Jul 17, 2011My daughter Hao Hao and I were at an outdoor music festival when she first spied the little girl. About 3 years old, in a pink Hello Kitty dress, and one long brown curly ponytail, ... Read more »
column: Balancing old and new traditions for family and community at Fourth of July and Ann Arbor Summer Festival
Posted: Jul 03, 2011When my seven-year-old son, Little Brother, came home from school and said that his first grade class would be talking about family traditions the next day, his older sisters all simultaneously said, “Uh oh.” Because ... Read more »
column: Bollywood flash mob dance performance surprises Ann Arbor Summer Festival Top of the Park Wednesday
Posted: Jun 29, 2011My mom once emailed me a link to the most amazing YouTube video — A Random Act of Culture sponsored by the Knight Foundation: Handel’s Messiah unexpectedly and apparently spontaneously performed by 650 opera singers disguised ... Read more »
column: End of the school year brings summer travels, moving away and international friendships
Posted: Jun 26, 2011As the fifth graders processed into the auditorium under the brightly colored pink, blue, orange and green arches (swimming noodles held aloft) for the final end-of-school assembly, the whole school applauded. Congratulations! Fifth grade graduation! ... Read more »
column: Resisting 'slacktivism,' remembering Vincent Chin, and singing with Joe Reilly
Posted: Jun 19, 2011Young activists today complain about "slacktivism" or activism for slackers, when clicking the "Like" button is the extent of one's involvement in social issues. Read more »
Column: Pondering picnic food - 'normal' and not - and its power to bring us together
Posted: Jun 12, 2011While cleaning up after our annual Memorial Day potluck picnic barbecue, my daughter Hao Hao asked, “Who brought the potato salad? That was random.” A lifetime of mayonnaise angst flashed through my head and I ... Read more »
Column: Being surprised by the lunar calendar, dragon boat festival, and the sudden maturity of our children
Posted: Jun 05, 2011The tricky thing about using a lunar calendar is that if you are not paying attention — or if you have not properly aligned your lunar calendar with your regular planner — holidays and festivals can sneak ... Read more »
column: The importance of ethnic new media for filling out the conversation
Posted: May 29, 2011As my children scurry around excitedly before our neighborhood’s annual Memorial Day Parade—decorating their bikes, finding bags for the candy the Girl Scouts will throw, thinking about doughnuts in the park, planning to barbeque with ... Read more »
Column: Citizenship questions on Mother's Day for President Obama, Wong Kim Ark, Superman and the 'birthers'
Posted: May 08, 2011My oldest daughter was almost born in Thailand. I was living in Kathmandu, Nepal, at the time, and the closest western hospitals were a day’s flight away in Bangkok. I loved cruising Bangkok Chinatown, and ... Read more »
Column: The power of pancit: Try something new during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Posted: May 01, 2011My children recently had steamed broccoli for the first time. Confronted with an entire head of soft green mush, they did not really know what to do with it, so they smiled politely and pushed ... Read more »
column: Selections from the smorgasbord of spring celebrations, learning from Passover and Black Day
Posted: Apr 24, 2011(This column has been revised to fix a typo.)In fifth grade, my class held a Passover dinner as part of our unit on Exodus. Exodus was a big deal then, with Charlton Heston starring in ... Read more »
Get the Ann Arbor RSS Feed
AnnArbor.com