Although their theaters are mostly gone, Chinatown’s Chinese immigrants still have their festivals. The festivals are a way for the Chinatown residents within the community to connect and celebrate their traditions and cultures while also attracting tourists, which is good for business.
Moon-cakes baked and ready to be eaten for the Mid-autumn Festival (Atlaslin, Wikimedia Commons).
During the Lantern Festival, Chinese dragon and lion dances are performed and lanterns are hung. During the Ghost Festival, offerings are burned by families to appease ancestral spirits. As for the Mid-Autumn Festival, delicious moon-cakes are baked for everyone to enjoy. Another festival, the Chung Yang (or “Double Yang”) Festival, is the day in which families visit their ancestors’ graves (1).
Yet probably the most famous of these festivals is the biggest festival of the year. It is the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Cultural Festival.
Dragon dancers moving through Mott Street in the 2012 Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade (Kevin Downs, www.demotix.com).
Each year over 500,000 New Yorkers and tourists wind through the mainstreets of Chinatown alongside red-scaled dragons and leaping lions in Chinatown’s New Year Parade. Starting where Mott Street and Hester Street intersect, the parade party moves through Mott Street, East Broadway and Eldridge Street and finally ends at the intersection of Forsythe Street and Broome Street.
After the parade there are plenty more cultural festivities to be enjoyed at Sara Roosevelt Park. There, participants get to hear live music performances by members of the Chinatown community as well as take part in activities based on the Chinese zodiac, such as pig racing (1). This is also the time where children might be given their New Year’s present, money in red envelopes called ”lai see” in Cantonese or “Hoang Bao” in Mandarin (2). Finally, once the celebration has ended, participants often journey to the many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown to get a taste of traditional Chinese foods and drinks.
