With Lunar New Year just around the corner, the Old Fire House Teen Center (OFH) at 16510 N.E. 79th St. in Redmond will open its doors this weekend to the community to celebrate the Year of the Snake.

From 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the history of Lunar New Year and some of the traditions that come with it. There will be Chinese calligraphy and painting, a red envelope exchange and a special lion dance at 6:30 p.m. followed by a question-and-answer session with the dancers.

“They definitely teach, as well as entertain,” said Brynn Ehni.

As youth chair for the Redmond Youth Partnership Advisory Committee (RYPAC), Ehni was one of about 20 teens who have been working to plan and organize the annual event, which is free and open to all ages. Members of Redmond High School’s Asian Student Association are also supporting the event through volunteers and promotion.

In addition to learning from the lion dance troupe, Ehni, a Redmond resident and Lake Washington High School senior, said people will be learning a bit about the history and origins of the remaining activities. She said the teen organizers will have researched the activities they are running, which will include origami paper folding, as well as spring roll and fortune cookie making, and be able to answer any questions people may have.

This is Ehni’s second year working as an organizer for the Lunar New Year event. She said through her experiences, she has learned a lot more about the holiday, including which activities they hold are actual Lunar New Year traditions — the lion dance and red envelope exchange — and which aren’t — the origami. She said with the latter, they continue to host the activities because they are popular but clarify that they have nothing to do with the holiday.

“The teens have fun because they not only get to participate and plan but they also learn what they teach,” said City of Redmond teen and 50-plus programs administrator Ken Wong about the organizers.

The OFH holds a number of cultural events throughout the year and Ehni said it is important to do so because they live in such a diverse part of the world and it is important to understand each others’ cultural differences and similarities. She also said if people know more about each other, it can only help them understand and accept each other.

“Starting younger always helps,” she added about holding such events and activities for teens and kids.

Other cultural events at the OFH have included celebrations for Cinco de Mayo, winter holidays, Chinese Harvest Festival, Day of the Dead, Diwali, St. Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras.

“We try and infuse cultural celebrations as much as we can,” Wong said about the city’s teen programming.

He said these cultural events for teens are important because they honor those who celebrate them and provide a space in which they can share their traditions with others.

“We try and make them all inclusive because eventually younger kids will be teens and adults share their experiences that they remember as a teen,” Wong said.