This is the Year of the Horse
The Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival. Yuan-Xiao, also known as the Lantern Festival, is celebrated 15 days after the Chinese New Year. In 2014, the Chinese New Year occurred on January 31st and Yuan-Xiao occurred on February 14th. The year 2014 is the year of the horse.
The Computer Science (CS) department at UTDallas had planned to celebrate the Chinese New Year in January but, because of the weather, the celebration was rescheduled to February 14th. So, at UTDallas, the Chinese New Year was celebrated on the day of the Yuan-Xiao Festival, which was also Valentine’s Day! The students didn’t mind because the food and camaraderie were great!
Most of the attendees were students from China, but students of all nationalities were welcome. The food was delicious and everyone appreciated the kind gesture of the Computer Science Department for sponsoring the event. Most of the students ate the Chinese food with chopsticks. Those who ate with plastic forks said eating Chinese food, prepared in the USA, is often easier to eat with forks. Apparently, Chinese food, prepared in China, has a slightly different consistency, better suited to eating with chopsticks. All of the students enjoyed the food, regardless of the tools they used to eat it!
The Department of Computer Science at UT Dallas is one of the largest CS departments in the United States with more than 750 undergraduate, 500 MS, and 125 PhD students. They are committed to exceptional teaching and research in a culture that is as daring as it is supportive. See www.cs.utdallas.edu for more information on the department.