While many University students toasted New Year's Day last month, others celebrated it last weekend.

Hong Zhong (freshman-nursing) said she went home last Friday to celebrate the Chinese New Year with her family. They watched a Chinese New Year parade on Sunday in Philadelphia's Chinatown.

She said the Chinese New Year celebration was more exciting for her than American New Year's because it allowed her family and relatives to get together.

But other students remained in State College as the Year of the Goat, lunar year 4689, got underway.

Most Chinese international students called home to extend New Year's wishes to their families, said Yichung Rau (graduate-electrical engineering), a member of the Chinese Student Association.

Rau said he felt homesick for Taiwan at a time when his family was together there.

"I missed home, my relatives and good food," he said.

Dat Nyugen (junior-electrical engineering) spent the new year away from his family in Washington, D.C., but he found kinship with members of the Vietnamese Student Association. The group organized a banquet with cultural entertainment for the New Year.

The CSA, feasted on Chinese delicacies, watched movies and viewed a live performance by a Penn State Karate Club member in the HUB Ballroom.

In China, preparation for the monthlong celebration traditionally starts 15 days before New Year's Day, in the 12th lunar month.

Families clean their houses to greet the year anew, Rau said. Families also hang banners on their houses that proclaim the words "Good Fortune" or "Spring," implying a fresh start.

On New Year's Eve, celebrators eat a dinner consisting of 10 (a lucky number for the Chinese) dishes at 6 or 7 p.m., Suhmei Liang (junior-computer science) said.

At midnight when the new year is ushered in, food is placed on an altar as a sacrifice to dead relatives, Rau said. This worship invokes the family's deceased loved ones to share in the food and celebration in spirit.

"They gave us life," Rau said. "We ask them to protect us and give us fortune."

Firecrackers are then ignited to thwart the evil cannibal ogre Nien, Rau said.

New Year greetings are exchanged and money enclosed in red envelopes are given to children for luck, Liang said.

In Nyugen's home, he said, his religious grandmother burns incense and prays before the Buddha shrine for their family's good health, prosperity and happiness.

"The value of family associated with the new year ties my family closely together," Nyugen said.

Rau's expectations for this year are simple. "I want to study hard and finish my education," he said. "And I pray that my parents will live long."