Today marks the beginning of the 4699th year in the lunar calendar, the year of the snake. Festivities for the year of "the snake sleeping in winter" will continue for fifteen days, focusing on family and friends, food and long-standing traditions.

In State College, events will include the fifth annual dragon dance and parade tonight at Eastview Terrace, a dinner Friday at the Park Forest Baptist Church, 3030 Carnegie Drive and a festival Sunday at the HUB Alumni Hall.

"The dragon will dance following the sun, to chase away evil spirits and ensure prosperity for the upcoming year," said Prudence Johnson, information and marketing coordinator.

The parade will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the Eastview Terrace Community Center and will travel up University Drive to the intersection with Hastings Road and proceed to the Graduate Circle.

The dragon was created last year by a local artist and children in the after school program. Red envelopes stuffed with chocolate coins will be passed around to the children at the parade, to symbolize the tradition where elders give money to children in similar envelopes.

"What comes out of this event, is the spirit in each of the people," Johnson said.

Other events will include several traditional dinners, an important element in the yearly celebration.

On Sunday, at 5:30 p.m., the Taiwanese Student Association will be hosting the Lunar New Year Festival.

Pei-Shah Liao, president of the association, said, "Food plays a significant part in the New Year's celebration."

The event will include a traditional dinner, which will include fish to bring them surplus, whole chicken to bring good luck and grain for long life, she said.

"Authentic food will be important because it is difficult to find in this area," she said.

Later, a videotape depicting the New Year celebration in Taiwan will be shown, and the night will end with performances and prize drawings.

Tickets can be purchased downtown at the Big Noodle House, 428 E. College Ave., and New Chinatown Chinese Restaurant.

Those who are celebrating the holiday tonight have a long night ahead of them, Liao said.

"After dinner, people stay awake as long as possible, because we believe that the longer one stays awake, the longer our parents lives will be," she said.

"There's quite a large Asian population at Penn State and I think we can raise cultural awareness within the university and the community with programs like this," Liao said.

On campus, the Lunar New Year is important to both students and faculty, Terrell Jones, vice provost of educational equity, said in an email.

"As the world we live in gets smaller and smaller, we become increasingly dependant on each other, an understanding of the world's cultures, values and even celebrations is crucial to our shared future," he said.