A restaurant in Chinatown was so packed with UFT members and their families on March 15 that the dancing lion could barely squeeze around the tables — not that anyone minded. The UFT Asian Heritage Committee, which hosts a Lunar New Year Banquet every year, was happy to make room for 350 guests to honor Marian C. Thom, the founder and longtime chair of the committee, and to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.

“Babies born in the Year of the Dragon are known to inherit courage, intelligence and luck,” said UFT Treasurer Victoria Lee. “Teachers time their babies for summer deliveries, and Asian parents time their babies for a dragon birth year.”

Lee said Lunar New Year is a time to reflect on achievements, and she noted as an achievement the recent declaration of the day as a public school holiday in New York State.

UFT Asian Heritage Committee Chair Seung Lee, a New York City public school graduate, said he rarely celebrated Lunar New Year as a student. “I had to go to school and my parents had to work,” he explained. “So now, celebrating with my children and colleagues is gratifying. I want everyone to feel their culture is important.”

During a delicious Chinese meal, members cheered on the children of PS 124 in Chinatown as they wove through the crowd in a lion costume to the accompaniment of booming drums. Members “fed” the lion red envelopes of cash, gifts that traditionally go to the children. The money collected would fund the school’s lion dance team. Tickets and raffles also raised funds for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and Chinatown community organizations, including a women’s shelter and scouting troops.

The banquet was the first UFT event for Marie Jeong, an occupational therapist in her first year working in New York City public schools. “It was a great way to interact with others in the same career who aren’t in your school every day and to experience the diversity” in the union, she said. “If you’re not coming, you’re missing out.”