BANGOR – Pupils at Fruit Street School will celebrate Chinese New Year with a school assembly. The children have been busy making dragon masks, hats and puppets in their art classes to wear and carry in a parade around the gymnasium to the sound Chinese drums.

For many years, since their children attended the school, the Prusitis family has generously loaned the school an authentic Chinese dragon for the pupils to parade behind. Due to the age of the dragon, it will be used only as a display piece this year. The pupils have a new dragon, which they helped design, to dance with this year.

All pupils in pre-kindergarten through grade three took part in designing material to hang as fringe on the dragon’s back. They used shapes, patterns and many colors, drawing on strips of muslin with permanent markers.

Art teacher Wendy Libby constructed the 15-foot-long dragon that is hanging in the lobby of the school until the assembly when the pupils will have the opportunity to parade and march under and behind the creature of good fortune.