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Students line the hallways at Albion Elementary as bright red and yellow lion heads bob up and down to the beats of a drum.

The lions are making their way around the school, dancing and collecting red envelopes hanging from the doorways of each classroom to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

“Our lions danced through the hallways and ate the red envelopes, which symbolizes bringing good luck and prosperity into the new year,” explained English Language Learners teacher Kana Wiens. “All the bright colours and noise are meant to chase away evil spirits.”

Each lion was made up of two students – one inside the lion head and the other forming the body and tail.

Grade 7 student Kirsten was controlling one of the lion heads.

“It was pretty interesting because I’ve never celebrated with a lion dance before,” she said. “Also, it was funny because I [could] put my hand out of the mouth and … grab the red envelope.”

The lions were followed by two students on a drum and a parade of kindergarten and Grade 1 students wearing paper crowns and holding up paper lanterns.

“I think the Lunar New Year – me being in the parade – was actually pretty cool, actually,” said Grade 4 student Naomi. “Really cool.”

Wiens organized the parade with Grade 4/5 teacher Terry Jung, who brought in the lion heads, decorations and the drum. He also taught the students how to do the lion dance.

“Our students were really happy and excited to see their culture being represented at the school,” said Wiens. “Our goal was to show that Lunar New Year is not only celebrated by Chinese communities, but also by South Korean, Vietnamese, and many other communities around the world.”

2025 is the Year of the Snake, the sixth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.

“The Year of the Snake means wisdom and transformation,” Naomi said.

In Vietnamese, she added, the Lunar New Year is called Tết.

“We go over to other families in our complex to visit them and to give them red envelopes,” she explained, “and they give us red envelopes filled with money and it’s pretty wholesome.”

In Korea, they use white packets instead of red envelopes, Kirsten said.

“My favourite part of celebrating the new year is getting white packets because I usually can’t get any money when I want to, so that one is my chance to get money,” she said.

Grade 5 student Kim says his family celebrates the Lunar New Year by cleaning their home, having a big feast, and wishing his relatives in China a Happy Lunar New Year.

“We celebrate Lunar New Year because we want to have good luck and we don’t want any bad luck in our house,” he said.