The Somerville Council on Aging’s belated celebration of the commencement of “The Year of the Dragon” brought a colorful ambiance to their latest Cultural Mondays event.

By Harry Kane

On Monday, Feb. 27, The Somerville Council on Aging commenced their Cultural Mondays program with a kickoff celebration of Chinese New Year.

While the year of the Dragon has been in full effect for just over a month, it’s never too late to start celebrating.

With almost 100 people joining in festivities a cultural influx of knowledge was imbued on the elders in a fun and educational way.

Eleanor Rances, 74, thought the day was wonderful. “It brought to me another dimension of their culture…and the costumes and the women were magnificent. I had never been that absorbed in their culture until now.”

After a Chinese lunch-in, the Evergreen Team Performers led the audience through a cultural extravaganza starting off with a talk on the “Year of the Dragon” and how animals became the names for the different years.

From there, the singing and dancing began with eleven performances ranging from a Chinese version of Danny Boy to Zumba with a Chinese twist.

“They loved the part when they all sang Danny Boy together because it’s bridging between the two cultures,” Outreach Coordinator Lisa Heyison said.

Tufts Senior Lecturer, Jinyu Li, spoke about linguistic challenges in a globalized world. She talked about breaking the gap between the languages.

“The program ended with all of us singing Happy New Year and good fortune to all,” Heyison said.

The next Cultural Monday is March 26. The seniors will be exploring the Persian region of the world with food from the area, musical entertainment and a lecture on Persian culture.