国内英语新闻:Feature: Helsinki students acquire understanding of Spring Festival

HELSINKI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- It was the afternoon of Feb. 12 local time in the Confucius Institute classroom at the downtown University of Helsinki. Lanterns and colorful streamers were hanging high, creating a joyful festival atmosphere.

The Spring Festival, once celebrated only in China, in recent times has been gaining greater attention worldwide.

And in that small classroom, aspirations of learning more about the traditional Chinese festival drew dozens of excited and attentive students from Finland and other countries.

The gathering started with vice director Professor Li Yuanzheng's introduction to the origin and customs of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Then, a short video clip on the festival was played.

However, the audience's participation wasn't limited just to listening and watching. To celebrate the "Year of the Tiger," they staged a string of performances to share their happiness.

The performances were quite Chinese and included small dramas, Chinese folk songs, poems from the Tang and Song dynasties, and Taichi.

Apparently, their love of the traditional Chinese culture simmered into the music and poetry. Additionally, the students also brilliantly displayed their achievements in learning the Chinese language.

Perhaps the most symbolic icon of the Spring festival is the dumpling, which would certainly feed the hunger of the students at the Confucius Institute for both food and knowledge.

Juhani Riisio, a student at the University of Helsinki, called the dumplings "quite good to taste."

The students knew that dumplings are always served during the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, but making the food was a new challenge for them.

The first time doing anything is never easy. However, it could be read from the students' actions and faces that they were doing their best.

It seemed that they were making the dumplings as carefully and confidently as they were at learning Chinese.

Hard work and eagerness to learn usually pays off. The students were soon able to made decent looking dumplings, though the taste was still waiting to be examined.

As the experimental dumplings were cooked and served, delicious smells seemed to stuff the room. Anyone who wanted to know the results of the students' efforts could see nothing but gladness and comfort from the smiles of both teachers and students.

The making of a dumpling may take only a couple of hours to learn but a culture could take a lifetime to appreciate. Small and symbolic as the little dumplings are, they help to shorten the distance between the western world and China, facilitating communications amongst different peoples. By learning from each other, it is certain that our tomorrows would be defined by mutual understandings instead of mistrust.