On February 23, 2023, Confucius Institute for Business at Matej Bel University hosted a cultural event with the theme of Lantern Festival and Spring Festival for university and high school students and employees, and the general public. The event saw around 100 guests. Madame Vice-rector Knapková, Madame Vice-rector Kmeťová, Mr. Vice-dean Skoršepa, and some other UMB employees also attended the celebration.

"The sun rises on every house and hall, The old charms are replaced by the new ones overall." Director Wang Jianwei warmly welcomed the guests. Miss Wan Shiqi gave a mini-lecture about the most traditional customs of the Chinese New Year’s season, focusing on the key words of the Spring Festival Couplets, Yuanxiao, and the Lantern riddles. Mr. Yan Xiaolin wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets on site and invited two participants to paste the Couplets on the "door". As the saying goes, "The spring is not only in the east, but also in every household."

Our host, Miss Zuo Hang, put on kroj, or traditional Slovak attire, while our two students, Diana and Monika dressed themselves in Hanfu – traditional Chinese attire. Miss Zuo asked them to share their experiences of learning Chinese and their understanding of the Chinese culture. They both expressed their love of the Chinese culture.

Miss Jin Wanting and Mr. Yan Xiaolin sang a duet "Little Dimples", which was awarded warm applause from the audience. Literally, "Little Dimples" is a love song; metaphorically, little dimples, as our host put it, “actually can refer to anything that charms us. It might be a rose on Valentine, the ring on the wedding, the Castle in Bratislava, or a maple leaf from Xiangshan Mountain (the Fragrant Hills) in Beijing. I’m sure we all have our dimples in our lives. ”

The lantern riddles were highlighted as Miss Zuo presented, in Chinese, in English, and in Slovak, three riddles under three lanterns, as caused quite a stir among the audience. The subsequent selection of the lucky-award-winners was “wane and wax”. Six lucky numbers were randomly drawn from one hundred numbers, and miraculously, four of the six were Miss Zuo’s students, only two go to one other student and a member of the audience. This dramatic scene almost drove the audience "out of control" for a while.

We arranged five workshops for this cultural event, i.e., calligraphy, paper-cutting, paper-folding, Chinese knotting, and dumpling making. Participants were free to choose which workshop they would like to join in and to experience for some fun. "Good times are always short." The event was originally scheduled to end at 17:00. However, it turned out two hours were not long enough.

Our special thanks go to two volunteering students: Jiahui PENG and Paulína Kudlová. Thank you for your contribution to the event.