NEW YEAR LANTERNS. Paper lanterns are used widely for decoration, and this time of year they help celebrate the Lunar New Year. An Auspicious New Year Lantern Workshop will be held Thursday, February 7 at the Capitol Hill Library in southwest Portland. (AR Photos/Julie Stegeman)

From The Asian Reporter, V18, #6 (February 5, 2008), page 15.

By Julie Stegeman

An enthusiastic crowd of the young and the young at heart gathered together at Multnomah County’s Gregory Heights Branch Library in northeast Portland last month to learn and practice the art of paper lantern-making under the direction of local artist Jean Choy.

Paper lanterns are used widely for decoration, and this time of year they help celebrate the Lunar New Year, which starts with the New Moon on the first day of the New Year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The Lantern Festival marks the end of the celebrations of the Lunar New Year, and is often observed with lantern displays hung from houses and shops and by people carrying lanterns in a parade along the streets. The upcoming year is the Year of the Rat, and the first day of the Lunar New Year begins February 7.

Paper lanterns are also used as decorations at the Mid-Autumn Festival, at birthday parties, and sometimes at funerals, where the lanterns are white.

Jean Choy, originally from Hong Kong, moved to Portland 20 years ago. She is a social worker who has taught Chinese brush painting classes for 25 years. She currently teaches Chinese brush painting at Portland Community College’s Southeast Center and has led activities in cooperation with the Multnomah County Library for the past two years.

Choy described last month’s paper lantern-making event as a "come and go" project, meaning it has no set arrival or departure times. Participants worked at their own pace for as little as a few minutes or as long as two full hours.

Ms. Choy began the event by teaching participants a very basic design using a single piece of thin paper (construction paper is too thick). The paper was decorated using colorful crayons and markers, then cut and glued into the lantern shape. Once the simpler design was mastered, she encouraged and taught her students to make more elaborate two-layered or even double-deckered lanterns. Although children were clearly the focus of the event, many of the adults who attended got into the spirit of things. Several adults decorated elaborate, multi-dimensional lanterns of their own.

Ms. Choy’s approach to teaching her students was to demonstrate the essential components of crafting the lanterns; she then encouraged and assisted individuals in making the creations their own. She also described how the basic design might be modified to decorate other items, such as vases.

There were many moms, dads, and kids at the event, looking to spend some time having fun together on a Sunday. There were also adults who came to learn on their own. One participant, Carol Mazer, was there to learn how to make paper lanterns in order to adapt the event for use at PODER (Padres Orgullosos De Estudios y Retos), which is an intergenerational family literacy program under Even Start located in Cornelius, Oregon.

Jean Choy is holding an Auspicious New Year Lantern workshop on Thursday, February 7 from 4:00 to 5:00pm at the Capitol Hill Library, located at 10723 S.W. Capitol Highway. For more information, call (503) 988-5234 or visit <events.multcolib.org> and search the event finder for "Auspicious New Year Lanterns."