Lunar New Year
Chinese New Year is an official holiday throughout Greater China, which includes the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. But what about in other countries?
Chinese New Year enjoys official status in countries in Asia with significant Chinese communities, such as Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Some other countries that were influenced by Chinese culturel such as Vietnam and Korea also celebrate the Lunar New Year, but the holiday has different names and customs.
Chinese New Year – while not usually an official holiday – is also celebrated in cities with significant Chinese communities in the West.
Included are Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco in the United States; Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada; Melbourne and Sydney in Australia; and Birmingham and London in Great Britain.
San Francisco
In at least one Western city, however, Chinese New Year IS an official holiday: San Francisco.
With a Chinese community dating back to the California Gold Rush of 1849, San Francisco has been celebrating the Lunar New Year for nearly one and a half centuries. And nobody, perhaps, does it better.
Every year, the narrow streets of that city’s fabled Chinatown come alive with the ear-splitting roar of firecrackers, filling the air with the scent of gunpowder and littering the sidewalks with tattered red paper.
While firecrackers are officially illegal in the city, the police have traditionally turned a blind eye to the practice of setting them off during this festive period.
Lion dancers prowl the streets, the sidewalks are lined with fresh flowers and food stalls, there is e a flower market, a community fair, a Chinatown run, a mini parade, a basketball jamboree, and the celebrated Miss Chinatown USA Pageant.
World’s Best Chinese New Year Parade?
The festivities kicked off on 6 February and will run through the end of the month. But the real attraction is the annual Chinese New Year Parade, which will take place on Saturday 27 February.
With more than 100 units, it has been ranked as one of the world’s top 10 parades by the International Festivals and Events Association, attracting crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands, lining the streets to witness the thrilling spectacle.
The procession includes lion dancers, giant walking puppets, acrobats, costumed stilt walkers, drum and dance corps, elaborate floats, elementary school students in costumes, and high school marching bands.
The highlight is the 250 foot long Golden Dragon, which is colourfully festooned with lights. Carried aloft by more than 100 martial artists, it snakes through the streets, bringing the parade to a dramatic close.