On February 14, 2026, the Confucius Institute at Middle East Technical University successfully held the “Welcoming the Spring and Sending Blessings” cultural experience event to celebrate the Year of the Horse. A total of 24 students from the Confucius Institute weekend classes and METU Chinese 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 was organized around three main components: interactive cultural experiences, an introduction to Spring Festival traditions, and traditional food preparation. Through hands-on 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”), printing 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. Ms. Xie Mingming also recorded a New Year greeting video for the students and encouraged them to express their holiday 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 Chinese-language quiz session followed, during which students actively participated and reinforced relevant vocabulary and cultural knowledge. The program also included a New Year wish card writing activity and a lucky draw. Participants wrote down their goals and wishes for the coming year and decorated a “New Year Wish Wall.” Small gifts with distinctive Chinese cultural elements added to the joyful atmosphere.
During the culinary experience session, teachers introduced the symbolic meaning of dumplings in the Spring Festival tradition and demonstrated the preparation process. Students and teachers then sat together to make dumplings, working collaboratively through kneading the dough, rolling out wrappers, filling, and cooking. Through this hands-on activity, participants experienced the spirit of reunion embodied in the traditional “family reunion meal.” The event concluded with everyone enjoying the dumplings they had prepared together in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
This Year of the Horse Spring Festival cultural event further enhanced students’ understanding of traditional Chinese festival culture and strengthened their sense of connection with the Chinese language and culture. The Confucius Institute at Middle East Technical University will continue to organize diverse cultural activities and contribute to promoting people-to-people exchanges and friendly cooperation between China and Türkiye.