KYCC Holiday Carnival 2022
On December 3, we celebrated the holidays with our community as we brought back our full-scale Holiday Carnival to Koreatown! Thousands of community members, KYCC clients, and their families were welcomed to the event with free, hand-wrapped gifts from Santa, arts and crafts, carnival games, entertainment and resources & activities from our community partners. Watch here.
2023 Lunar New Year Celebration
You’re invited to the 2023 Year of the Rabbit Lunar New Year Celebration on January 21, 2023 at Northridge Park from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Bring your friends and family for fun arts and crafts activities and goodie bags for the kids!
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday: January 16
How did the MLK holiday come into existence?
The fight to make the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday a holiday took 32 years to be approved as a national holiday. King’s birthday was finally approved as a federal holiday in 1983, and all 50 states made it a state government holiday by 2000. The King holiday is marked every year on the third Monday in January.
Representative John Conyers introduced the first motion to make King’s birthday a federal holiday in 1968, just four days after King’s assassination in Memphis. It took another 11 years to the federal holiday to come up for a vote on the House of Representative’s floor in 1979. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill in November 1983. The first federal King holiday was celebrated in 1986.
Today, the King holiday serves multiple purposes: It honors the total legacy of King; focuses on the issue of civil rights; highlights the use of nonviolence to promote change; and calls people into public service.
Here is a link for things to do around LA on MLK day:
11 Ways to Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Los Angeles
DEI Corner: Makar Sankranti
Makar Sankranti is the first festival of the year in the Hindu calendar which falls on January 14th or 15th. While many festivals are based on lunar events, Makar Sankranti corresponds with the sun’s movement from Saggitarius to Capricorn (brandeis.edu). Makar Sankranti goes by many names such as Uttarayana, Maghi, or simply Sankranti, but Makar means Capricorn and Sankranti means movement or transition (indianeagle.com). It represents the end of winter and the beginning of spring as the sun begins its rise toward the northern hemisphere and the onset of longer days. There are twelve Sankranti corresponding with each movement from one zodiac sign to the next but Makar Sankranti is the most celebrated of them all (indianeagle.com).
It is a time to encourage closeness, charity, and forgiveness. The legend of Makar Sankranti is about the Hindu deity or deva who represents the sun, Surya, and it is said that on this day, Surya visits his son with whom he is not very close (indianeagle.com). Therefore, It is a time to encourage closeness, charity, and forgiveness. Moreover, it is considered a very auspicious time as the gates of heaven are open and the celestial realm is more accessible (brandeis.edu).
There are many ways that Makar Sankranti is celebrated based on what state of India you are from. Bathing in one of the holy waters, for example, is a way to cleanse oneself of sins and start the year anew. It is also a harvest festival to express gratitude toward mother earth where delicious food is shared and sweets are given to neighbors. Festive sweets include puran poli, til ladoos, halwa, and ellu bella. In Maharashtra, women perform the Haldi Kumkum ceremony where married women exchange turmeric and vermillion powder, among other gifts, for the strength of their marriage, and for the good health and longevity of their husbands (indianeagle.com).
In the northern states of India, particularly Gujarat and Rajasthan, Makar Sankranti is also a kite-flying festival (indiasomeday.com). People gather in the morning to the afternoon to enjoy the sun’s rays with colorful kites as gratitude to the sun. It can also be a competitive sport as they take to their rooftops with their kites and sesame treats. You may hear “Kai po che!” (I have cut) which is what one would proclaim after severing someone else’s kite string (cntraveller.in). If you are interested in seeing the wonderful spectacle of the kite festival without having to book a flight to Gujarat, check out the Kite Festival in Anaheim on Saturday, January 14th.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Birthdays
- January 1 – Shawn Kuk
- January 5 – Harvey Malcolm
- January 9 – Marina Marquez
- January 13 – Valerie Mireles
- January 13 – Yancy Mauricio
- January 19 – Seungmin Jackson
- January 20 – Kendelle Milton
- January 27 – Jerome Williams
- January 27 – Steve Kang
- January 28 – Tristan Kim
- January 28 – Trecia Cruz
- February 3 – Chivas Mays
- February 4 – Betsaida Sambrano
- February 5 – Ana Carlin
- February 13 – Kathleen Hobkirk
- February 18 – Seung Yoon
- February 19 – Jaqueline Garay
- February 19 – Mark Goff
- February 22 – Quinn Jackson
- February 27 – Julia Uribe
- February 27 – Giovanna Valdivia
- February 28 – Mirna Villalta
Work Anniversaries
- January 1 – 9 years – Katherine Kim
- January 11 – 1 year – Erica Suh
- January 18 – 1 year – Kendelle Milton
- January 18 – 1 year – Martin Kim
- January 18 – 1 year – LaTanya Clark
- January 21 – 2 years – Liz Kim
- January 22 – 5 years – Chinyoung Farrey
- January 26 – 7 years – Lidia Sebastian
- February 1 – 5 years – Steve Kang
- February 6 – 4 years – Porfirio Marin
- February 12 – 3 years – Hilcia Guerra
- February 14 – 1 year – Christian Morales
- February 16 – 1 year – Aaron Kim
- February 16 – 2 years – Greg Peralta
- February 27 – 3 years – Tristan Kim
Did you know…
You can get rid of old files, reports, and records, and make your office look streamlined again?
KYCC has storage space on Western, and we can retain your old documents there.
Here’s a link to procedures and another link to the inventory form.
As we celebrate a brand new year, let’s do it free from the clutter of the past.
Now you know!
On this date
Something extraordinary happened.
A client got housed, a student became tutor, a parent became a leader, someone raised their hand and asked an important question…
On this date, someone took a chance, connected, opened a door or showed up with generosity.
We can celebrate each of these momentous events today. The best way is by doing it again.
– Seth’s blog
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