On February 14, 2026, Confucius Institute at Middle East Technical University(METU CI) successfully held special event to celebrate Chinese New Year. A total of 24 students from METU CI weekend classes and elective courses participated in the event, immersing themselves in the festive atmosphere and experiencing traditional Chinese Spring Festival culture.

As the most important traditional festival in China, the Spring Festival symbolizes bidding farewell to the old year, family reunion, and hopes for a prosperous new year. The event has three parts: interactive cultural experiences, an introduction to Chinese Spring festival, and making dumplings. Through participation, students gained a deeper understanding of the customs and cultural significance of the festival.

At the beginning of the event, students, under the guidance of teachers, practiced writing the Chinese character "Fu" (福, meaning "good fortune"), designing red envelopes, and putting up Spring Festival couplets. Through these activities, they appreciated the aesthetic beauty of Chinese characters and learned about the symbolic meanings of red decorations and the character "Fu," which reflect Chinese people's wishes for happiness and good fortune. Our Chinese teacher also recorded a New Year greeting video for the students and encouraged them to express their new year wishes in Chinese, integrating language learning with real-life communication and enhancing their Chinese speaking skills.

The event then featured a themed video introducing the origins, traditional customs, and cultural meanings of the Spring Festival. A festival Knowledge quiz session followed, during which students actively participated and reinforced relevant vocabulary and cultural knowledge. The session also included a New Year wish card writing activity and a lucky draw. Participants wrote down their goals and wishes for the coming year. 

During the culinary experience session, teachers introduced the symbolic meaning of dumplings in the Spring Festival tradition and demonstrated how to make dumplings. Students and teachers then sat together to make dumplings, working collaboratively through kneading the dough, rolling out wrappers, filling, and cooking. The event concluded with everyone enjoying the dumplings they made together.

The Chinese new year celebration further enhanced students' understanding of traditional Chinese festival culture and strengthened their sense of connection with the Chinese language and culture. METU CI will continue to organize diverse cultural activities and contribute to promoting people-to-people exchanges and friendly cooperation between China and Türkiye.