East Room
5:36 P.M. EST
THE FIRST LADY: Hello, everybody. (Laughs.)
AUDIENCE: Hello!
THE FIRST LADY: Today, as we are meant to celebrate, our joy has been shattered by two horrifying mass shootings this week. And our prayers are with the family of those lost in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, and we grieve with broken hearts alongside every member of this community.
The poet, Cathy Song, wrote: “May those who have gone before us rest in peace, rest in comfort, rest in joy…[And] may our wish for peace spread like a mother’s soothing hand and reach the distressed, fevered places of the world.”
It’s an honor to be with all of you here for the first Lunar New Year reception at the White House! (Applause.)
Each winter, as we come to this moment, we are still the same people that we’ve always been. Our history lives inside of us, no matter how many pages of the calendar we turn.
And yet, as we sweep the grounds of this last year; as we tell the passed-down legend of the terrible monster, Nian; as we turn away from short days and long nights, we can see the hope of each new year just the same: in blazing red spring couplets on door frames, in tables overflowing with food from old family recipes, in windows that glow with lantern light.
In the darkest night, the new moon, shadowed with the unknown, waxes toward the dawn of morning.
It’s never too late to begin again, to learn from our past and honor the people who helped us get here; to face our fears with faith in themselves, hope for good fortune; and work together for the world that we all want.
History lives inside this White House, as well — hammered into the beams of these walls and swirling in the marble of each fireplace. It tells the stories and legends of where we’ve come and who we’ve been.
And yet, the brilliant lanterns with lucky red, we know that it, too, can grow and evolve and begin something new.
With our unique traditions and talents,…
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