Grassroots, a River Campus environmental activist group, organized and spearheaded the events, designed to celebrate the beauty of nature and to promote a sustainable future.

EarthFest, established in 1997, grew out of Earth Day, which began in 1970.

“EarthFest brings a lot of publicity to the cause of environmentalism,” says EarthFest chair Julianne Kapner ’19. “This year we brought more environmental groups on campus and added a clothing exchange.”

Here are some snapshots from this year’s celebration.

ArtAwake is a student-run mix of art, music, food, and family fun in one setting. This year’s festival included more than 60 artists and 20 musical performances.

“Having ArtAwake on campus was great,” says creative director Gabryella Pulsinelli ’16. “We were able to get lots of students to stop by and show them a variety of artwork and performances. Being able to transform the vacant space into a gallery?and performance?space was amazing. It was much different and difficult doing it on campus, but we were able to power through and have a wonderful event.”

Here’s a look at some moments from Saturday’s event.

On January 28, the Year of the Monkey gives way to the Year of the Rooster. Some of our students of Chinese descent tell us what makes the celebration of the Lunar New Year special to them, their family and the region in which their families live.

Thanks to these students for sharing their experiences with us:
Richard Kao ’19, Kaili Chen ’20, Christina Zhang ’18, Randy Wang ’20, and Bingying Liu ’18. 新年快乐!

Joy Bian ’17 is majoring in digital media studies and business.

According to the Chinese calendar, a lunar calendar with a 12-year animal zodiac cycle, 2017 begins this weekend. At the stroke of midnight, as the Gregorian calendar turns to January 28, China will welcome the Year of the Rooster, replacing the Monkey, the zodiac of 2016.

Thinking of the celebrations back home, I texted my friend “Remember to wear red.” The color red symbolizes luck, fortune, and happiness in China so it is common to see people wearing red bracelets, scarves, and coats at the beginning of the New Year. “Rooster babies” (born in the year of Rooster) are often dressed in red by their parents to avoid bad luck in the coming year. While many people consider these gestures superstitious, they’re still widely observed as traditions that have been passed down for generations.

The holiday is bittersweet for me and many other Chinese students studying in the United States.

“I haven’t celebrated Chinese New Year with my family since I came to study in the States,” said Shuyu Zhou ’17, a mathematics and economics major from Beijing. “I am always packed with schoolwork when Chinese New Year comes.”

For many Chinese, Christmas, which falls during winter break, is an exotic festival when families bond and get together. We celebrate it in my family, but gift exchange is more voluntary than a must, and it’s not as popular as it is in the United States. My family is very understanding about my school calendar, so during Christmas we had a huge family reunion. Even though it wasn’t the same as everyone getting together on New Year’s Eve, it helped make up for missing the huge celebration back home.

In China, people get seven days off for the holiday to spend time with their families and get ready for a brand-new year.

There are many ways to celebrate the holiday. Food choice always varies from one region to another. I was born and raised in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, a city of approximately 4.5 million people in eastern China. While northern Chinese make dumplings on New Year’s Eve, I make spring rolls and sesame rice balls with my parents. This is the only time of the year that I have the opportunity to show off my natural-born cooking talent. I love spring rolls stuffed with mashed red beans, but my father is not a big fan of sweets. He usually fills the rolls with finely chopped nappa cabbage and ground meat. I deep-fry the rolls until their skin turns gold.

Gathering and preparing all the ingredients for the night of the feast takes a whole day. Grocery shopping must be done by noon on New Year’s Eve, because stores and public markets all shut down in the afternoon. It’s not surprising to see no one on the streets. Everyone is home.

Fish is always the traditional dish in my family. The word “fish” in Mandarin sounds like the word for “surplus.” My mom likes the auspicious message that fish brings good fortune, abundant food, and luck in the coming year.

As a dessert, my family always goes with Eight Treasure Rice. It consists of sticky rice, preserved and candied fruits, ginger, plums, and dates. The dessert takes its name from a legend in which eight warriors battled against a despotic emperor.

New Year’s Eve is the only night of the year that my dad stays up late. He sets off firecrackers at midnight outside the house to say goodbye to the old year and embrace the new year with a loud bang. There are three times over the 15-day New Year celebration that my family lights firecrackers—the first, fifth, and seventh days. Many families that are in business or trade explode firecrackers on the fifth day because it is believed that the Chinese God of Fortune would visit. My uncle used to own a flower shop. I witnessed the annual firecracker show in front of his shop when I was little. The noise was so loud, as it was supposed to be, that I always covered my ears.

If I’m about to take out the garbage, my mom will stop me. “No! Don’t dump the trash today,” she says. This is a tradition passed on for years in my family: never throw anything away on the first day of New Year because it is considered fortune flowing away.

My mom is the only person in my family who is familiar with all kinds of New Year taboos, traditions, and customs. “My mom taught me well,” she always says.

Even though I am not taught every single rule, I am a keen observer and have learned much over the years. Things like no porridge or congee for breakfast, or no laundry on the first day. These may sound funny to people who have never heard of them, but every culture has traditions that are transmitted from older to younger generations.

While traditions continue, they are also transformed in various ways to adapt to our modern life. Children are the happiest group on the first day of New Year when they receive red envelopes from their parents. I used to discover two red envelopes under my pillow when I woke up in the morning. This so-called “lucky money” is given by parents to send love, blessings and happiness. In 2013, WeChat, a social mobile app company based in China, launched an online money transfer program that allows people to send virtual red envelopes. It has become so popular that it has turned into a modern way of greeting people during the New Year. We give red envelopes not only to kids, but send them to our friends and relatives, too.

On Thursday, December 1, the 蘑菇传媒 goes back in time with the annual Boar’s Head Dinner, a tradition that began in 1934. This year’s event starts at 7 p.m. in the newly renovated Meliora Ballroom in Frederick Douglass Commons.

“This is just a fun student-owned event for us to enjoy each other’s company,” says Matthew Burns, the dean of students. Burns has attended the dinner for the past 15 years and always wears his favorite “English lord” attire while sitting at the high table.

A longstanding Rochester tradition, this pre-holiday feast consistently draws more than 500 people and sells out in a day.

Before the tradition began, there was an annual College Night Dinner. But a group of students suggested replacing that event with a boar’s head banquet, inspired by a 16th-century Oxford University legend. According to that legend, a Queens College scholar was walking through the woods when he was attacked by a wild boar. A student passed by and thrust a copy of a work by Aristotle down the boar’s throat, killing him. The gala banquet was instituted by the college to celebrate the student’s triumph and the scholar’s survival.

The University accepted the idea, and the Boar’s Head Dinner has been held every year since, except for 1943 to 1945, when it was suspended due to World War II.

The first dinners were held at Todd Union. The dining hall was decorated in the manner of an English Great Hall, with long tables set up on either side of a wide center aisle, for the procession.

The winter feast was an all-male event until 1970, when women were admitted to the dinner for the first time as beer maids serving thirsty singers and guests. The following year, the Women’s Caucus petitioned to give women equal access to the event. The petition was accepted, and since then, the Boar’s Head Dinner has been a coed event.

“The most interesting thing is to meet the people and see them dress up in costumes,” says Heather Maclin, the assistant director of student activity programs. “It’s very unique. I’d never witnessed anything like this before I came to this institution.”

This year’s dinner started with the traditional trumpet fanfare and introduction of High Table Lords and Ladies. Several University a cappella groups—After Hours, Midnight Ramblers, Vocal Point, and the YellowJackets—sang together while the food was served in the order of soup, entrée (roast pork and turkey), and dessert. The dessert consisted of sample sizes of different types so that diners could try out various options. Student hosts tended to the tables, making sure the food was abundant.

Among the highlights of the evening is a retelling of the Boar’s Head legend by a member of the faculty. This year, English professor and novelist Joanna Scott presented “The Reading of the Boar” with her own twist to the story.

Another highlight is the announcement of the Boar’s Head winner for outstanding student organization. Each year, the previous year’s winning organization selects the new honoree. For decades, the Boar’s Head—literally, in accordance with tradition—was passed from one Greek organization to the next. Delta Upsilon broke tradition in 1996 by choosing to recognize the Social Activities Board. The Black Students’ Union received the prize last year and named the Douglass Leadership House as the 2016 winner.

In addition to the boar’s head and the honor of naming the next year’s winner, the chosen organization receives a monetary gift.

The selection and announcement of the Boar’s Head winner underscores the ways in which the event establishes connections—from one group of students to the next, and one generation to the next.

Burns thinks about the students who enjoyed this dinner 82 years ago. “This tradition binds you to every other person who ever walked down this campus before,” he says.

Rafael Muchanga, Jr. ’18
Home country: Mozambique
Major: chemical engineering

“The nominating conventions here provide a great opportunity for voters to get to know each candidate and make a responsible decision. I imagine the U.S. being one of the most powerful countries in the world, and every decision they make affects the rest of the world. If the U.S. is governed by someone with Machiavelli’s sort of power, it will screw up the rest of the world.”

Yashika Patil ’17
Home country: India
Major: business
“I was shocked to learn the number of people who actually support Donald Trump. I understand that people don’t trust Hillary [Clinton], but I don’t think it is a valid enough reason to support someone so vapid, uninformed, and a tyrant.”

Ruairi Conway ’17
Home country: Ireland
Major: digital media studies

“If I had the right to vote, I would go for Hillary [Clinton]. I know a lot of people don’t trust her, but compared to Trump, she has more specific policies in mind. I think people who vote for Trump vote for his promise of big changes. I can see why people would rather vote for radical change when they’re not happy. But this is not the election to do that.”

Edgar Yau ’20, undecided major from Hong Kong

“As an outsider, I think Trump shouldn’t be representing the United States because his views of race, education, and wealth are very distorted. As a U.S. president, what he says embodies the whole country, so this person has to show a certain level of knowledge, but apparently he does not.

“Most of my peers are very liberal so they like Democratic Party more. Even though Hillary [Clinton] is a little bit shady and disingenuous, she shows more caring for the people and the country, and her policies are more progressive.”

Zeqing (Kate) Zheng ’17
Home country: China
Majors: international relations; psychology

“Donald Trump pronounced ‘China’ as ‘Gina’ so many times at the first presidential debate. It is understandable that Trump wants to project an image of China as a threat to the U.S. But at the same time, a lot of the evidence he used to portray China as the big, bad guy is factually incorrect. His false accusations and descriptions are disrespectful to the country itself.”

Woo Tag Kim ’19
Home country: South Korea
Major: business

“Trump’s foreign policies are really unacceptable to me. We currently have U.S. soldiers based in South Korea to balance the military power from North Korea. If Trump is elected, I’m afraid that the whole U.S. Army will be withdrawn, which does no good to either of us.”

A native of Estonia, Laube already has an impressive portfolio and rich experience in digital art production. He has exhibited work in both the United States and Canada. Last March, he served as the creative director of in New York City, and was a video artist in a performing art piece, “Reflection Spectrum.”

Recently he has worked on another show that he will perform on?October 29 at the New York Estonian House, in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan. Inspired by Estonian-born American architect Louis Kahn, “the show aims to explore how our physical surroundings can change artistic perceptions,” Laube says. “It is also about how we interact with the space we live in.”

The interactive live performance will feature video as well as direct conversation between the audience and the artists. Laube will take charge of audio effects as well as manage all operational details.

The performance is supported by , the longest running Estonian foundation that assists creative people in the United States with connections to Estonia and its culture. As the youngest e-board member of the foundation, Laube represents musicians and digital artists, finding new ways to promote Estonian culture, and multiculturalism in general.

Laube came to Rochester intending to pursue the arts. Since he arrived, he’s picked up violin, honed his graphic design skills, and actively participated in many cultural groups. He says he enjoys wandering around the art and music library stacks to search for books he might like. He’s recently added to his own shelf Super-Modified: The Behance Book of Creative Work (Gestalten).

“Rochester works for me,” he says.