For more than a quarter century, hundreds of UFT members have turned out each year to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the Lunar New Year Banquet hosted by the Asian American Heritage Committee. This year, shrimp dumplings, Peking pork chops, Young Chow fried rice and Long Life noodles were among the many culinary delights enjoyed by the 400 celebrants who filled the Grand Harmony restaurant in Chinatown to capacity on Feb. 28. This is the year of the horse, year 4712 of the Chinese calendar. If you were born under this sign you are cheerful, witty, talented and skillful with money, and you share

those attributes with such famous people as Rembrandt, Teddy Roosevelt and Sandra Day O’Connor whose sign is the horse. Dancing lion dragons and exotic music — provided by students from PS 130 in Manhattan — delighted the revelers. UFT President Michael Mulgrew was on hand to welcome the crowd and toast the new year. Marian Thom and Tsi Tsun Lo of PS 94, Brooklyn, the co-chairs of the Asian American Heritage Committee, chaired the banquet and served as master of ceremonies, respectively. A special award was presented to Bob Astrowsky, the former UFT assistant secretary and current special assistant to the president, for his years of support for the work of the committee.