On a cold winter weekend, Little Red Schoolhouse fills with laughter, color, music and the warm smell of dumplings. Families line up for rolled ice cream and sugar painting, children create bracelets and Chinese floral hair pins, and conversations unfold in multiple languages. This is Lunar New Year at the Forest Preserves of Cook County, an annual celebration that has grown from a single idea into one of the Preserves’ most popular events.

Lunar New Year returns on February 8 to Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center for the Year of the Horse, and for the first time at Crabtree Nature Center on February 5 and at St. Paul Woods on February 22. But it all began in 2024, when naturalist Amy Julian talked about a notion she had with a regular visitor with whom she had developed a friendship.

“I wanted to be culturally sensitive and appropriate,” Julian says. “So I just reached out to her to brainstorm some ideas and see if she thought [a Lunar New Year] event would work.”

That visitor was Dora Chen, and her enthusiasm helped turn an initial program into something far larger than anyone expected. The first year drew about 500 people. Last year, more than 2,000 attended.

For Chen, the invitation felt deeply personal. “The idea of bringing the warmth and vibrancy of an Eastern New Year to more American families during the cold Chicago winter was incredibly appealing to me,” she says. “I thought it was a perfect representation of the fusion between nature and culture, and the exchange between East and West.”

Chen’s connection to the Forest Preserves started long before the idea of a Lunar New Year celebration. Living nearby with her husband and young daughter, she regularly attended programs at Little Red. “Every time, we were impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the nature center staff,” she says, describing how those experiences made volunteering feel like a natural way to give back.

Lunar New Year itself carries deep meaning for Chen and her family. Born in northern China and having spent years living abroad before settling in Chicago, she sees the holiday as both a bridge and a promise. “We hope that our daughter, born in the U.S., can feel a strong connection to her parents’ homeland and language,” Chen says. “I believe the hope for a better life is something universal.”

While rooted in Chinese traditions, the celebration at Little Red Schoolhouse is intentionally multicultural and welcoming to all. Julian describes it as a space where people feel comfortable to come and learn, and where people feel comfortable celebrating their culture, too.

The success of the celebration is inseparable from its community partners. Julian credits Chen and a network of volunteers, including the Chinese Neighborhood Parents group and Naperville Chinese Storytellers, for shaping the event’s authenticity and scale. “It has ended up being a community-led effort,” Julian says. “I’ll take credit for stepping aside and trusting that they would do their thing.”

That trust comes with months of behind-the-scenes work. “For this annual event lasting three to four hours, we start preparations three to four months—sometimes even half a year—in advance,” Chen says.

The payoff is visible everywhere on event day, in children’s excitement, in parents asking questions and in the shared energy that fills the building. “Perhaps this is the power of nature itself,” says Chen. “It selflessly shares its boundless vitality and love for life, attracting a community of people who equally cherish life and beauty.”