Chinese New Year is upon us once again, and this year communities all over the world, from Europe and Asia to the US and Canada will be parading, lantern-bearing, dancing and eating their way into the year of the Wood Snake.
Whether you know it as Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, Tet, or Seollal, these celebrations are promising a whole lot of colour, extravagance and noise, full of bids for fresh starts for everyone. So, we’ve scoured the globe for the most vibrant street parties, pyrotechnic displays, feasts and lantern displays marking this year’s celebrations. Read on for the very best ones.
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Every year Singapore hosts a kaleidoscopic street parade called Chingay, which translates as ‘the art of costume and masquerade’. Basically, it’s a massive street parade fitted out with dazzling floats, colourful costumes, live performances, intricate props, and pyrotechnics. ‘Wow’ is the only fitting response.
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Yuyuan Gardens draws millions of visitors to Shanghai for its world-class annual lantern display. The luminous creations come in all different shapes, sizes, and colours, depicting everything from fish (representing wealth and prosperity) to dragons (to represent good luck) – and, of course, rabbits. There’s even a series of lanterns scrawled with riddles and puns for those wanting to flex their brain muscles in front of friends and family.
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What do 600,000 firecrackers crackling in the sky sound like? Exactly like the banishment of an entire city’s worth of evil spirits (and boy, does NYC have a few). Traditionally, herds of New Yorkers head to Sara D. Roosevelt Park every year for the firecracker release in order to ward off the bad omens of the past year. Those who still have their eardrums in check should join the lion dancing and parades to carry them into the streets of Chinatown afterwards.
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To prepare for the new year, Hong Kong’s shopping malls do a complete cuteness overhaul and deck themselves out in animal paraphernalia and pretty colours. From Langham Place to Tuen Mun Town Plaza, these multi-level shopping complexes are home to a world of Instagram opportunities every year.
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During Lunar New Year (or Seollal, as Koreans call it), the bustling city of Seoul becomes relatively quiet as people head back home to celebrate with their families. But every year, Seoul’s Korean Folk Village holds a Fortune Party where visitors can play folk games and check out traditional music and art. Traditions include daljiptaeugi (ritual burning to bring upon good harvest and peace), horseback martial arts and the sharing of tteokguk: traditional rice cake soup.
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Los Angeles’s historic Golden Dragon Parade, which brings floats, marching bands, costumes and crowds to the city port, is well over a hundred years old – making it even older than the Hollywood sign.
🎇 See our full guide to Chinese New Year in Los Angeles
Hanoi welcomes Tet (the Vietnamese word for Lunar New Year) with firework shows across the nation’s capital. They span from Lac Long Quan Flower Garden to Van Quan Lake, but the biggest and brightest of these pyrotechnic displays is always at the central Hoan Kiem Lake. Kicking off at midnight, the fifteen-minute light show is preceded by music and art performances, as the festivities prepare revellers to bid farewell to the old year and all its bad luck.
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Manchester is home to one of the UK’s largest and oldest Chinese communities, so it seems only fitting that its celebrations are normally some of the best in Europe. Last year St Ann’s Square in the city centre was home to a 50-foot golden dragon sculpture, while the city’s famous 175-foot dragon paraded down the city’s streets towards Chinatown. In a typical year you might also see traditional lion and ribbon dances, Chinese Opera performers, giant buddha dolls and a Chinese Scout parade.
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The Spring Festival Parade marks Lunar New Year with a celebration of Vancouver’s multiculturalism, starring a 3,000 large procession including reps from the Canadian city’s many communities. The half-century-old parade always draws huge crowds as it makes its way from Millennium Gate towards Chinatown, with traditional lion dances, cultural dance troupes and martial arts performances.
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Thean Hou Temple is one of Malaysia’s largest and oldest temples. Adorned in hundreds of glowing red lanterns, this majestic six-tiered temple draws in thousands of festivalgoers annually to celebrate the new year, with themed displays and wishes of abundant wealth, food and dignity for the year ahead.
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Technically a whole other city, Yokohama in Greater Tokyo is chaotic even without a global celebration like Lunar New Year. Throw that in the mix and you’ve got a riotous couple of weeks in Japan’s biggest Chinatown. The district hosts activities and installations including a massive countdown party, a parade of performers in historic costumes and a traditional Cai Qing Lion Dance, where red envelopes called hongbao are fed to the lion to bring good luck in the coming year.
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Taking place slap bang in the middle of Chicago’s Chinatown, the annual Lunar New Year parade usually carries marchers on a half-mile route to the finish line on Cermak Road. Herd of spectators follow a trail of marching bands, colourful floats and traditional lion dances as they parade throughout the precinct to ring in the new year.
🎇 See our full guide to Chinese New Year in Chicago
Usually, the Lunar New Year celebrations in London are among the biggest outside of Asia. A day-long celebration runs throughout the West End and Chinatown before ending at the city’s most recognisable public space: Trafalgar Square. The festivities kick off with a ceremonial painting of dots on to the lion costume’s face to symbolise life-giving. Then there’s a full day of traditional dragon and flying lion dances, Chinese dance and music shows, martial arts displays and, of course, a mouthwatering selection of street food.
🎇 See our full guide to Chinese New Year in London
From massive new museums to breathtakingly intimate music festivals via one-of-a-kind exhibitions and immersive artworks, these are the things that are getting our editors excited in cities as far-flung as Miami, Melbourne and Madrid.
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