Pacoima School Greets Year of Tiger With Asian ‘Burritos’

Javier Pulido took a hands-on approach Friday to celebrating Chinese New Year at his Pacoima elementary school: He carefully held the head of a dragon over his own and ran through the auditorium as 300 schoolmates squealed with delight.

“I get to scare away all the evil spirits,” Javier, 10, said. Then, pointing behind him to a jumping row of six little boys covered in a long red sheet, he giggled and said: “These guys are the body.”

At Sharp Avenue Elementary School, where 93% of the students are Latino, playing out the traditions of a Chinese New Year celebration was part of what assistant principal Yvonne Chen called a “cross-cultural” lesson.

“These students have learned what it’s like to be Chinese for a day,” Chen said. “They will have a good comprehension level of a culture that is not at this school.”

Although there are only two Chinese students at Sharp, she said, three Chinese staff members and teachers put together a program of Chinese dancing, singing and cooking to celebrate the nine-day New Year festival, which begins today.

Chinese New Year, the most important and popular of Chinese holidays, involves clearing away the bad luck of the old year to start a clean new one. At Sharp Elementary, girls with red flowers in their hair and boys wearing bright red sashes at their waists sung a song in Chinese while holding a symbolic lily.

“The legend says that, if the lily flower blooms, we will have good luck all year,” explained Frank Munoz, 10.

Youngsters performed a “ribbon dance,” twirling long, colored ribbons to Chinese music, and the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac were explained in both Spanish and English.

One first-grade class learned how to make egg rolls.

“They look like burritos, but they’re Chinese,” the teacher explained to her students as they waited in line to have their egg rolls cooked in a fry pan.

And, of course, when asked, most students knew that this is lunar year 4684, the Year of the Tiger.

“The tiger is power and strength and cares about people,” said Dora Velasquez, 6. “But I like the dragon the best.”