MONTREAL – The Côte-des-Neiges Community Centre was filled with flowers, potted plants, flowering fruit trees and exotic plants Saturday for the annual “Thousand Blooms” event.
Every year, the Vietnamese community in Montreal organizes the exhibition and sale to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Event organizer, Perry Nguyen, says that flowers play a big role in the celebrations.
“Some flowers have special meaning in Vietnamese culture,” Nguyen said.
According to Nguyen certain flowers symbolize prosperity, while others symbolize luck. The flowers from a fruit tree mean fruitfulness, so they represent success.
Not everyone at the event is there to celebrate the New Year though.
“A lot of the people here are plant collectors,” Nguyen said. “So they go for the orchids.”
Nguyen says the affair is also a great way for people to come together.
Although it’s been a mild winter, with certain winter carnivals forced to cancel activities or move them indoors, the “Thousand Blooms” exhibition is great way to brighten up those grey, dreary days of February.
“It’s a chance to look at the beautiful flowers in winter,” Nguyen said.
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