According to the ancient lunar calendar, the transition from the year of the horse fell on Feb. 1, but many in the community chose to welcome the ram another day.

One of the largest events in the city was Argonaut Elementary School's Jan. 31 Chinese New Year assemblies. With the help of Argonaut parent volunteers, students participated in and experienced a "formal cultural presentation," said coordinator Katherine Tseng.

Students and adults put together a performance that depicted the history and traditions of the holiday. Dressed in costume, the elementary schoolchildren danced, pantomimed and acted in skits.

While the performance was going, Chinese art students were creating brush paintings that were raffled off to various classrooms at the end of the assembly. Another Chinese art teacher and her class made clay figurines at the same time.

Non-performers also caught the Chinese New Year fever. Many of Argonaut's teachers and students either wore red—the color of celebration—or were dressed in traditional Chinese garb. So were parents and grandparents of students, who came out to support and videotape the students' special day.

The assemblies were followed with a holiday lunch, cooked and donated by parent volunteers.

Parents at Saratoga Community Chinese School were equally committed to coordinating a new year's event. The school, which meets on the West Valley College campus every Sunday, had its own large celebration Feb. 2.

Like Argonaut, Saratoga Community had an all-inclusive event, held in a courtyard near the classrooms. Principal Yumei Chen Chu says the Chinese school annually has a party like this one, which included samples of food, games, brush painting and other Chinese activities.

At the end of the day, each student was given a "hong bao," or red envelope, filled with treats. The cultural tradition, however, dictates that older family members present the children in the family with these envelopes, which are usually full of money.

While some Saratoga schools rang in Chinese New Year with parties, others in the community were decidedly more low-key.

Resident Grace Yang and her husband invited a group of relatives and family friends over for an evening of dining and conversation on Jan. 31.

Although Yang says her get-together did not follow customs in many ways—the guests did not stay until midnight, and there was no game of mah-jong after dinner—the meal had various traditional elements. The group ate spring rolls, which represented gold sticks; a stir-fry dish made out of 10 items; homemade egg wraps, typical of people from eastern China; Chinese meatloaf, which symbolized wholeness and togetherness; thin noodles, representing prosperity; and fish, without which no Chinese New Year meal is complete.

For Yang's family, however, New Year's Day would be "back to normal."

Photograph by Niki Desautels Argonaut Elementary School provided students with a Chinese lunch, prepared by parent volunteers. Five-year-old Julie Han (center) tries to decide what flavor drink she wants.

"Whoever gets a dime, they would be wealthy that year," Kuo said. "It's really kind of neat. My daughters grew up with their grandmother making the dumplings every year."

Kuo says the elders in the family did present the younger generations with red envelopes, but the group did not retain many of the Chinese New Year traditions that Kuo herself grew up experiencing.

Kuo recounts the days when new year's lasted three days and included bigger parties and more activities. "Back home, we always have firecrackers and line-dancing," Kuo said.

Harry Kuo—unrelated to Mary Kuo—says the same. Kuo, whose family owns Yong Lo Garden restaurant on Cox Avenue, remembers celebrating the new year in Hawaii, where the family recently came from.

In Hawaii, locals would light up fireworks after a Chinese New Year dinner. "If we did that here, the fire and police would come out," Kuo said.

Instead of eating the holiday dinner at home, Saratogan Fred Chao has his family feast on new year's eve at a Chinese restaurant. Chao says the 20-odd members of his wife Kathy's family follow the dinner with a visit to one of the relatives' homes "to have some dessert and chat."

The celebration "is much scaled down from what I remember in Taiwan," Chao said. "It was the biggest thing of the year—everything stops."

Chao recalls a holiday that included a one-week break, new clothes and toys for children, staying up past midnight to see the new year begin and his father writing Chinese calligraphy.

Chinese New Year events aren't completely over, however. Saratoga High School plans a luncheon on Feb. 7, at which Chinese parents and volunteers will gather with teachers for a traditional meal, and wish each other:

"Gong xi fa cai!"

"Xin nien kwai le!"