The Lunar New Year of the Rat began on January 25. Each year the seniors of Jennings Hall look forward to this cultural celebration. They have a Chinese meal and celebrate other traditions like receiving red envelopes and eating a mandarin orange (mandarin oranges are seen as lucky because the Chinese word for mandarin (kam) sounds similar to the Chinese word for gold). Usually there is a performance of costumed cultural dance and song, however this year one of the performers had travelled to China recently and as they couldn’t be 100% they weren’t exposed to the recent coronavirus they decided to cancel the performance. The Jennings Hall seniors still made the most of the celebration. Especially as fellow resident, Sandy Tong, also happened to be a Chinese Opera singer. So she delighted her neighbors with a beautiful song.
