East Lyme - Hanging lanterns and a traditional lion dance will highlight the annual celebration of the Spring Festival Saturday to mark the beginning of the Chinese New Year.

Local performers will take the stage, and families and friends will gather to wish each other well in a festive celebration of the Chinese New Year. The celebration is open to all and is a two-decade-old tradition for the Southeastern Connecticut Chinese Cultural Society, said its president, Wenhua Jiao.

The cultural society aims to build a stronger Chinese community and promote cultural awareness and diversity in southeastern Connecticut by sharing Chinese cultural heritage, said Jiao.

The Southeastern Connecticut Chinese School, which offers weekly classes in Chinese language enrichment and other subjects to more than 300 students, will also sponsor the event.

Saturday afternoon's event, held at East Lyme High School, encompasses performances, dinner and activities for the New Year, which begins on Thursday. The atmosphere will be festive and include singing and dancing by students of the Chinese School, traditional dance routines, and a magician or a puppet show, said organizers. The Spring Festival event drew more than 350 people last year.

Dumplings, a dish associated with the New Year, are a mainstay of the festival, along with offerings from different regions of China.

"This is a very interesting part of our party," said Shengquan Duan, a former president of the society and the current principal of the Southeastern Connecticut Chinese School. "People can enjoy the food from different places."

Many students from the Chinese School, which draws students from the region and as far as New Haven and Westerly, will attend the festival and see some of the Chinese traditions they learned about in school, such as the lion dance, said Duan.

Held Sundays at East Lyme High School, the school is open to the whole community and offers a variety of classes, including Chinese language classes, math classes, high-school SAT classes and classes in painting, music, dance and basketball. The school's goal is Chinese language enrichment, as well as imparting Chinese culture.

"We want to make sure our students are well-versed in the Chinese language after they graduate from the school," said Duan.

"We want to pass our cultural traditions to our second generation and promote cultural diversity within our community," he added.

The school began in the 1970s with about five families at the Public Library of New London. It then moved to the Williams School and later Connecticut College, before settling at East Lyme High School eight years ago. Now, more than 200 families participate in the school, and many families are involved in both the school and the society.

Among other activities to celebrate Chinese culture, the society organizes community gatherings each year for major traditional Chinese festivals, including the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year based on the lunar year calendar, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, said Jiao.

Saturday's festival will be the culmination of months of planning. Since mid-December, a dedicated team of organizers has been working to coordinate the performances, find a venue, recruit volunteers and prepare for the festival, said Jiao. A team of 10 volunteers will cook 1,000 dumplings for the festival.

"It's a big celebration," said Jiao.

k.drelich@theday.com

Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich

IF YOU GO

What: The Southeastern Connecticut Chinese Cultural Society's Spring Festival.

When: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21. Stage performances will be from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the auditorium. A dinner party will be from 5 to 7 p.m. in the cafeteria.

Where: East Lyme High School, 30 Chesterfield Road.

Cost: Free to society members. Non-members can pay $8 at the door to help offset the costs of ordering food and holding the festival.