D.C.’s Chinese New Year
Comments: 5 - Date: February 6th, 2012 - Categories: Uncategorized Tagged: china, chinese, dc, new year, parade, washington dc
By Zohra Alnoor
The smell of smoke from firecrackers filled the air in the Chinatown district of D.C. on Jan. 29, 2012. The annual Chinese New Year’s Parade was held last Sunday on H St. NW, between 6th and 8th Street. The parade, which lasted from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., wound around the streets with thousands of spectators standing on the sidewalks, eager to catch a glimpse of the music, dance and fireworks. The event was broadcasted to more than 40 million people on various local news stations throughout the nation, from Fox channels to NBC, and the viewership continues to grow each year.
Now to brush up on our history of this annual event: The Chinese New Year is 15-days long , starting with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon two weeks later. The Lunar New Year is not only celebrated by the Chinese, but also many other Asian countries, Korea and Vietnam being just two of the many participators.
Annie Yu, a Fox 5 news reporter of Korean descent, covered the preparations of the DC New Years parade all week long, and also attended the event with her family.
“It was even better than I expected! It was great watching all of the organizer’s hard work finally coming together and being a great success,” said Yu, who celebrated the Lunar New Year with her relatives during the weekend, which included many of the same traditions that the Chinese have as well.
The Chinese celebration includes dedicating each year to a specific animal. The Dragon happens to be this years traditional animal, and it’s said that many Chinese families wait until the year of the Dragon to have children. Anyone born in this year gains respect and honor within their community and are seen to have good fortune and be very powerful. For this particular reason, the festivities this year were especially large.
“They had a huge firecracker go off and I think it scared everyone for a second. When we realized what it was, everyone started laughing and cheering,” said Farrah Fazily, a 22-year-old senior at Marymount University majoring in Nursing, who attended the parade.
“I had planned on leaving early and going to a museum, but the event was a lot more fun than I expected and we stayed for the whole thing,” said Fazily.
She loved everything from the traditional Chinese Dragon dance, to the Kung-fu demonstration to the appearance from the Washington Wizards Cheerleaders.
Many guests and performers dressed in red clothing; a tradition on the Chinese New Year that is meant to ward off evil spirits, and they wore bright and intricate makeup as well as fashionable jewelry and head pieces to match their cultural outfits.
“All of the Chinese-Americans were so happy to see people of other faiths and cultures attending and a lot of the stores were offering us extra helpings of their sample dishes. It made us feel really welcome,” said Fazily, who is a Muslim of American-Afghan descent. “This is an event that I will most definitely be attending annually from now on, and I suggest others do as well.”
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5 Responses
In not too long, you were able to explain the background of the festival, what spectators saw, and the what the dragon means for the Chinese New Year. Very informative, in such a small amount of space. I found it very interesting, and honestly for those like myself who are not too aware of the background/how the festival began or what it means, I enjoyed reading this. I was already able to get a mental picture of the festival, and was able to put that with the pictures you actually posted. Very interesting to read.
Great article! I know next-to-nothing about Chinese culture/New Year celebration and this was certainly informative. It also makes me proud to be born in the year of the Dragon! I was able to visualize the outfits, smell the smoke and hear the firecrackers; great writing. The way you played around with font color was interesting as well.
I had absolutely no idea this event took place each year in Chinatown, DC! Now that I know of this annual event, I would love to attend in the future. These pictures are great Zohra!
I really enjoyed reading this article. Your descriptions enabled me to see the red outfits, smell the smoke, hear the fireworks. It was also very informative as I know next-to-nothing about the Chinese New Year. Plus, now I am proud to be born on the year of the Dragon! I loved your use of pictures and I thought the way you changed the color of the text based on quote/story/name was really interesting. Thanks!
What an awsome culture, I wish I could have seen the dragons and parades. Great coverage though, I know a lot of people were interested in checking that out. Maybe I should stop being so lazy and actually get out to these events. Luckily for me I have classmates who aren’t lazy. Nice job.
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