Photo Credit: Aluche Events
Written by: Albert Terc
Photos: Albert Terc
The grand finale of the Lunar New Years celebration was held in Chinatown this past Sunday. Lunar New Year is one of the biggest celebrations on mainland China and kept alive and well here in New York. This was one of the biggest crowds to turn out for the Lunar New Year parade with thousands of happy faces along the parade route beginning on Mott St. to greet the dancing lions. dragons, and proud parade marchers. Parade organizers, Better Chinatown, have made this event one of the proudest displays of Asian culture in NYC. Before the parade kicked off at 1pm, there was a ceremony at Mott and Hester Sts. where VIPs and politicians gave their speeches. All the heavy hitters of NY politics were there including Gov. Hochel, Mayor Adams, US Sen. Schumer and Attorney General Leticia James. Once all the proclamations were given, the annual ritual of feeding lettuce to the dancing lions began. Tradition has it if you catch some of the lettuce thrown by a lion good fortune will come your way.
The timing of this parade coincides with other events that affect the City namely the resurgence of one of the hardest hit communities in NY because of the pandemic and the senseless retribution cast on innocent members of the Asian population. Although the number of new cases has gone down as of the publishing of this article, the number of Covid deaths still hovers close to 2,000 per day nationwide. Asian hate incidents have been on the rise in the City and politicians, especially US Sen. Schumer were calling for harsher penalties for anyone convicted of any hate crime. On a local level, community activists were out in full force to call on newly elected Mayor Adams to stop the plans of the construction of a mega jailhouse planned in Chinatown. Those plans were brought about by the former Mayor and has had the community in Chinatown up in arms since day One. No one wants it there. Despite all these outside influences going on, the parade was a huge success with one of the largest crowds I’ve seen. The dancing lions were in full force and the crowd enjoyed every bit of it. Parade founder and director, Steven Tin, was like a general ordering his troops into formation to give the crowd a great show and that he did. The parade was a grand success with many viewers staying afterwards for some shopping and good food. I couldn’t help but get some takeout from one my favorites, Wo Hop on 17 Mott St. (the one downstairs). Best food in Chinatown. Happy New Year everyone.
NYC Parade Life 
Leave a Reply