Kreischer Miller hosted a Lunar New Year celebration on Thursday, February 8, 2024. About 140 team members attended and we had a tremendous experience enjoying delicious Asian cuisine and engaging in fun activities.
The color red symbolizes luck, joy, and happiness in the Chinese culture, so we decorated with red paper cutouts of lanterns, fu (blessings), and dragons, since it’s the Year of the Dragon. Those who attended the event were greeted with a brief introduction and hongbao (red envelopes) containing golden chocolate coins wishing them good luck in the new year. Attendees then visited three interactive exhibit tables.
Exhibit #1: The Chinese Exhibit Table
The first table was the Chinese exhibit table. Here, team members performed an authentic tea ceremony, a ritualized form of tea drinking, which is about nurturing body and soul, learning Chinese culture and manners, and purifying the mind. The ceremony devotes particular care to the fine teas, clean tea water, heat control, tea sets, and a peaceful environment. Both green tea and red tea were served.
To give the audience a more immersive experience, the guqin was displayed and played by Mingsi Chen, Senior Accountant, Tax Strategies. The guqin is a plucked seven-string ancient Chinese musical instrument recognized as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage by The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Its sounds are produced by plucking open strings, stopped strings, and harmonics. The use of glissando—sliding tones—gives it a sound reminiscent of a pizzicato cello, fretless double bass, or a slide guitar.
Exhibit #2: The Dumpling Making Table
This exhibit, led by Ashley Jiang, Manager, Investment Industry Group, was a dumpling making table, where team members learned how to make their own dumplings with wrappers and pre-prepared fillings. They were then cooked on the spot and served with dumpling sauce.
Exhibit #3: The Korean Exhibit Table
What does the Year of the Dragon hold for you? At the Korean exhibit table, team members gained insight into the future by having their fortunes told by Jung Min Cha, Staff Accountant, Tax Strategies, Yunmee Yu, Senior Accountant, Audit & Accounting, and Jeane Kim, Senior Accountant, Tax Strategies. In addition, team members modeled the hanbok, a traditional Korean dress consisting of the jeogori (top) and chima (skirt), with a child’s hanbok displayed.
You could also have your name written on a bookmark in hangul, the Korean alphabet, while learning about kimchi, the ubiquitous side dish which has recently grown in popularity and been designated a UNESCO cultural heritage. Handcrafted items such as painted fans and pouches featuring Korean designs and colors were presented.
A variety of delicious Asian foods from local restaurants were served including Korean BBQ chicken, gyoza (fried dumplings, both vegetarian and meat options), Lo Mein and Chow Mein (Chinese noodle dish), stir fries, and Chinese scallion pancake with beef. Team members even contributed their own homemade Asian dishes, which included crispy pork belly, tofu with ground pork, japchae (stir fried glass noodles with vegetables), bulgogi (barbecued marinated beef), and kimbap (rice, vegetables, and beef rolled in seaweed). There was a playlist of Asian music that played in the background while team members enjoyed their food.
Several types of beverages were also served, including yogurt drink with probiotics, Coco Palm (coconut and grape flavor), Milkis (carbonated milk drink), and Korean crushed pear drink. Choco Pie, Cosomi crackers, Chinese rice crackers, Choco Mont biscuits, and Couque D’Asse cookies provided a sweet finish to the meal as we celebrated the start of a new year!
Comments and Feedback from Attendees
Here’s what some of our team members had to say about the Lunar New Year celebration:
- “What a wonderful expression of your heritage. Thank you all for sharing. It was so interesting and delicious.”
- “I wanted to say thank you for putting the time and effort into running today's Lunar New Year event. I really appreciate you sharing part of your family and culture with us. One of my favorite things about being at Kreischer Miller for 20 years has been getting to know people beyond just the client work we do. It's leaders like you that help make Kreischer Miller such a special place to work.”
- “Thank you for organizing such a delicious and beautiful event. You worked so hard preparing food to the delight of everyone! It brings us in and makes us feel like family.”
- “As a team member who celebrates Lunar New Year, I appreciated our firm hosting and joining us in this celebration; it filled my heart when team members came up to me to ask about my culture!”
Continued Lunar New Year Celebrations
We continued the celebration on February 15th at Ascend Greater Philadelphia's Lunar New Year event, which was sponsored by Kreischer Miller. These two Lunar New Year events were a fantastic opportunity to learn more about this 3,500-year-old tradition that is celebrated in most countries in East Asia.
We wish everyone a happy New Year; may the year ahead bring you prosperity, joy, good fortune, and abundance!
Below is the list of KM members that contributed significantly:
- Quinn Rushik
- Yunmee Yu
- Jung Min Cha
- Min Huang
- Jeane Kim
- Matthew Ho
- Hua Ma
- Mingsi Chen
- Dong Tran