Celebrate 2018, Year of the Dog

Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, takes world by storm

AS THE Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, fell on Friday this year, celebration of the most important holiday in China is taking place in countries worldwide.

According to the State Council Information Office, the Chinese New Year was celebrated in more than 400 cities in more than 130 countries and regions this year.

In the US city of New York, spectacular fireworks lit up the night sky over the Hudson River on Wednesday as part of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

In mostly red and gold, the two major auspicious traditional Chinese colours, the fireworks display, themed “Happy Spring Festival”, created images representing cultural elements, such as the dog, one of the 12 traditional zodiac signs, and the Chinese knot.

Prior to the display, Zhang Qiyue, Chinese consul general in New York, hosted a celebratory gala for around 300 local celebrities and officials.

Designed by China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, the display was executed by Fireworks by Grucci, a New York-based fireworks company.

“It (was) fantastic, especially on Valentine’s Day,” Scott C Cooper, director of business development at Fireworks by Grucci, said.

New York State added the Spring Festival to its list of public holidays in 2014.

On Tuesday, the Chinese Consulate in Durban teamed up with ethekwini Municipality and the Durban University of Technology’s Confucius Institute to host the hundreds of Chinese people living in the city, at the Sibaya izulu Theatre.

The stage was an explosion of bright colours and intricate traditional music.

The performers, mostly Chinese youth, showcased dance, song, and daring acrobatics with surprising ease.

One performer gracefully balanced a porcelain bowl on her head while quickly spinning around, letting her traditional Chinese blue floral costume flare out behind her across the stage.

Another performer, shrouded in mystery with a cloak of red silk, wowed everyone by changing into a series of face masks in split seconds.

The night would not end without a taste of Durban, as towards the finale a crowd of performers pulled young and old audience members to the stage to dance to the 2010 Soccer World Cup theme song Waka Waka, and tossed in a few Zulu traditional dance moves.

The festive atmosphere was in full bloom on Wednesday in the almost millennium-old Ukrainian city of Lviv, which has hosted the Lunar New Year for the seventh consecutive year.

Its gothic and baroque buildings, and even its alleyways, were decorated with red lanterns and colourful paintings of Chinese characters.

About 40 pavilions with Chinese and Ukrainian food were installed on Ploshcha Rynok, the central square, with people crowding around a pavilion serving dumplings.

Chinese food, dragon dancing, a laser show, Chinese karaoke, a Kung Fu show and a Spring-themed gala attracted thousands of tourists to the town.

In the city of Yangon in Myanmar, a grand lion and dragon dance performed by more than two dozen groups of ethnic Chinese in Myanmar kicked off New Year celebrations on Thursday.

With large traditional drums and colourful festive flags, the procession around Chinatown, organised by a local dance group, attracted thousands of spectators.

During following events, Chinese traditional handicrafts and cultural objects will be showcased at booths lined up on the Maha Bandoola Street, the main road of Chinatown, which is lit by more than 6 000 traditional red lanterns with festive decorations, including some archways erected in the main junctions of the road.

In the Egyptian tourist city of Sharm el-sheikh, the walls and trees at Hollywood Fun Park in the Red Sea resort city were garnished with red Chinese lanterns and colourful Chinese paintings to embrace a three-day celebration.

Amid a joyful atmosphere of a moonlit night, hundreds of Egyptians joined Chinese to watch traditional lion dance performances in the alleys of the tourist site to celebrate the big festival.

As artists performed on stage, Chinese organisers distributed gifts to members of the audience, who hailed from a variety of nations.

In the New Zealand city of Auckland, the Sky Tower also joined other landmarks lit for Chinese New Year. The tallest man-made structure in the country is scheduled to be lit with a gold-colour base and red top until March 4. –