“But this celebration — which we have been doing now for 16 years — is to not only rejoice with community members but also to let staff and everyone at the hospital learn about Asian culture,” Yang said.

Judy Bachman, executive VP, COO at Maimonides, who was also in attendance at the event, pointed out that Southern Brooklyn is one of the fastest-growing Chinese communities in all of New York.

“Maimonides has over 1,300 Asian employees — 19 percent of our total staff — which is truly amazing,” Bachman said. “In addition, we have more than 530 staff that speak Chinese — including 40 physicians and more than 150 nurses.” 

The event also featured a number of other guest speakers, including Douglas Jablon, special assistant to the president at Maimonides, and George Liu, who is on the hospital’s Board of Directors.

But the day was very much about the many children in the audience — whose verbal and physical displays of exhilaration were infectious — cheering and gesticulating for all the afternoon’s performers.  

It was most certainly a day of revelry and community for this, the Year of the Dragon — said to be confident, intelligent and enthusiastic.  

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is a 15-day festival typically celebrated in China and other Asian countries that recognizes the start of the New Year, similar to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the United States.

Chinese/Lunar New Year celebrates the arrival of spring, and, as the most important holiday in China, it is a time of year for reuniting with loved ones.

Each year, Chinese/Lunar New Year marks the transition between the zodiac signs, with each year said to bear the characteristics represented by its zodiac. Each animal represents one of the 12 stations or signs along the path of the sun through the cosmos.

The last Year of the Dragon occurred in 2012.