Families gathered to welcome the Year of the Horse as the San José Museum of Art hosted its Lunar New Year Community Day.  

The sound of drums and music echoed through the galleries, while the red and gold color filled each hallway and staircase as part of the celebration.

The event happened on Feb. 21 and was held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., transforming the downtown San José museum into a lively space filled with cultural demonstrations, art activity stations and traditional lion dance performances, according to the San José Museum of Art webpage.

Shelby Hendricks, a group tour and family programs manager at the San José Museum of Art, said this year’s celebration is centered around the Fire Horse, which is the Chinese zodiac sign for 2026. 

“We kind of started with the idea of it being Year of the Fire Horse,” Hendricks said. “And so we were thinking about activities that revolved around that.”

Lunar New Year begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and is celebrated by several Asian cultures, including Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures, according to the National Museum of Asian Art.

Hendricks said the event was part of the museum’s bi-yearly community day series, where free admission is offered to the community, designed to engage the diversity of the city.

The Lunar New Year includes traditions such as decorations with red symbols, reunion dinners, firecrackers and family rituals to usher in luck and prosperity, according to China Highlights.   

Hendricks said one of the museum experience representatives designed a Fire Horse graphic featured in social media materials, a coloring page and a gallery guide to connect with zodiac symbolism and broader Lunar New Year traditions.  

The museum’s activities included hobby horse crafts inspired by the Chinese zodiac theme, animated rattle drums that referenced the importance of drums in New Year celebrations and lantern stations symbolizing wishes for the year ahead. 

“The animated rattle drums are based off of the drums being a big portion of the new year,” Hendricks said. “The light-up lanterns are for thinking about the new year and making a wish or hope.”

Live performances featured the Sun Hing Dragon and Lion Dance Association, whose performance was accompanied by percussionists bringing traditional elements of the Lunar New Year.

Lion dance is an important part of the Lunar New Year celebrations and is believed to remove evil spirits and bring in good luck. A good performance brings happiness and good fortune, according to the New York Chinese Freemasons Athletic Club.

Hendricks said that organizing the community day is a part of the museum’s broader effort to connect with San José’s surrounding neighborhoods and to bring the community together for this time of year. 

San José Museum of Art Community Day is a day where the cultural diversity of the region is celebrated fostering connections and nurturing a sense of belonging for all, according to the San José Museum of Art webpage. 

“It’s really important for us to meet our communities where they are,” Hendricks said. “We want to reach out and be a part of the celebrations that are going on in the communities that surround the museum and be able to bring people in.”

San José is known for being one of the most diverse cities in the United States with 39.5% of the population being Asian and 30.8% Hispanic or Latino, according to the United States Census Bureau data.

For attendees at the event, celebrating Lunar New Year inside the museum gave a new perspective to the familiar holiday. 

Alexander Briones, a high school student in San Mateo, saw the event as a new experience for him who never celebrated the New Year differently. 

“As someone who grew up in a Hispanic household, this is my first time experiencing something like this and I think it’s cool that the museum here in San José offers free events like this,” Briones said.