Hey, Squirrel Hill!
On Sunday, February 16th, our community came together to kick off 2025 with a festive (indoor) Lunar New Year event to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Snake! This year was different from the usual Lion Dance parade down Murray Avenue, given that the sudden shift in weather led to a quick change in plans. Thanks to the JCC’s quick accommodations, the festivities moved indoors, ensuring a successful celebration!
The performances for this colorful cultural celebration mesmerized the audience! The Steel Dragon Kung Fu Team started the celebration with a vibrant traditional Lion Dance, filling the room with energy through rhythmic drumming and dynamic movements. This was followed by the graceful performance of the Silk Elephant dancers through their elegance and refined movements. This is sure to bring wishes for a year full of good fortune!
Lunar New Year, known as the Spring Festival, is a tradition thousands of years old, rooted in the belief of warding off evil spirits to ensure a good harvest. The colorful activities of the celebration welcome a fresh start to a prosperous year while removing negativity and the old. This special time brings friends and families together through food, drink, and traditional customs and events.
A big thank you to our outstanding performers: the Steel Dragon Kung Fu Team, who traveled from Redding to join us, and the Silk Elephant Dancers for their beautiful performance. We also appreciate Rachel Lecrone and our litter patrol volunteers for organizing the morning cleanup and quickly regrouping to the change in plans. Special thanks to Xitai Wang and Wei Tang for their extra support on the day of the event.
Thank you to everyone in the spotlight and behind the scenes for making the 2025 Squirrel Hill Lunar New Year Parade a tremendous success!
A heartfelt thank you to Melissa Hiller and the JCC team, with a special shoutout to Chris Herman and Amadeo Gonzales for your tech support, event setup, and room arrangement facilitation. Thank you to Mardi Isler, Dalia Belinkof, and our event organizer, Marian Lien, Co-President/Treasurer of OCA Pittsburgh. We also appreciate the OCA Pittsburgh Board members, including Yiting Cheng, President; David Liu, VP of Community Affairs; Chiapih Shaw, VP of Cultural Affairs; and Arthur Pang, VP of Public Affairs. An extra thank you to Mardi and the JCC for their help in planning and adapting when we moved the event indoors.
Finally, thank you to the Ten Thousand Villages for helping sell and distribute the Lunar New Year of the Snake t-shirts!
The OCA’s Lunar New Year banquet on February 15th was a beautiful, well-attended event, hosted at Szechuan Spice. A huge shout out to Marian Lien, Co-President/Treasurer of OCA Pittsburgh, the OCA Pittsburgh Board, and volunteers for making it such a success!
A big thank you to our elected officials for celebrating with us, including County Exec Sara Innamorato, Mayor Ed Gainey, City Controller Rachael Heisler, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, Councilmember Erika Strassburger, and Councilmember Barb Warwick.
Congratulations and thank you to our 2025 Grand Marshal, Shellie Yeung!
Litter Patrol will host group and individual clean-ups the week leading up to the Earth Day cleaning event from Monday, April 21st, to the in person event on Sunday, April 27th, from 9 am -12 pm starting at Forbes and Murray in front of the Squirrel Hill Carnegie Library.
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