In Montreal’s Chinatown, organizers are setting up for Lunar New Year festivities this weekend which they expect will be the biggest the city has ever seen.
Numerous activities are planned among Asian communities in the city and the focal point will be in Chinatown, where a three-day festival is being held. There were some activities Friday afternoon but the big day is Saturday.
“A parade,” beamed festival organizer YiFang Eva Hu. “There is a lion dance, dragon dance and many more interesting performances that kids, families and everybody can see on Clarke Street from René-Lévesque to Viger.
“Sunday you’re going to see Chinese opera, Vietnamese traditional instruments, dances, singing from one of our superstars coming from Taiwan.”
The three-day festival also has indoor activities, but for families the private celebrations will last for weeks and much of that will centre around food, according to Winston Chan.
“Every Lunar New Year it’s a feast where all the family members gather around, around food with many, many dishes,” he told Global News, adding that every dish has significance all along the lines of luck and prosperity, like soy noodles, for instance.
“So the noodles mean longevity because of the length of the noodle,” he smiled.
The Lunar New Year, which starts Saturday, will be the Year of the Dragon. Jimmy Chan of the Montreal Chan Lions Dance Club says the mythical creature represents many things.
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“Unity, and also prosperity, health and the most important thing is happiness,” he explained.
This is the festival’s second year and, according to Hu, they want to use it to unite the richness of the diversity among Asian communities who arrived in the city at different times.
“Like the Cambodians, the Chinese, to the Vietnamese during the war as well, and then followed by Hong Kong people when Hong Kong returned to China,” she said.
She says it’s not only about unity, but also preserving their traditions for their children.