Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown Features Banners, Music, and Lots of Dragons

Thousands of New Yorkers and visitors from other cities and countries congregated along Mott and Canal Street on February 25, where a long cavalcade of human-operated lions and dragons, volunteers dressed in historical costumes, representatives from Chinese civic organizations, Senator Chuck Schumer armed with a loudspeaker, a traditionally bedecked marriage bride litter, and others processed to celebrate the Spring Festival.

The parade and festival marked the end of a 15-day celebratory period that began with Lunar New Year on February 10, heralding the Year of the Dragon.

The dragon is much revered creature that embodies strength, nobility, and good fortune, such that births in China and other East Asian countries see a notable uptick during Years of the Dragon—presumably, this is because couples intentionally time their child’s arrival to be auspicious. East Asian deities and demigods are said to keep dragons as personal mounts and companions; the Chinese emperors settled with using dragons as their personal motif on clothing, architecture, and personal articles.

It was the dragon’s association with China’s imperial past that may have damaged its reputation during the Cultural Revolution. The giant panda, an “apolitical and benign” animal that until that point lacked historical meaning, stole some of the dragon’s limelight—some sources claim that there was an abandoned proposal to replace the Year of the Dragon with that of a panda. But the dragon, alongside the panda, remains a popular symbol of China, and at the Lunar New Year parade on February 25, there were dragons aplenty.

“The dragon is so important in Chinese culture that they will be in a Lunar New Year parade every year,” said Sonia, who came from Elmhurst, Queens. “Of course, this time they are even more prominent. As someone born in the Year of the Dragon [1988, in her case], hopefully this year will not be as shi*** as the last for me, ha-ha. Of course, I made sure to follow all the traditions for good luck, like eating the fish on New Year’s Eve, and my family is always reminding me to do that.” The Chinese word for fish--yu(2)--is pronounced the same way as the word for “abundance,” and so sharing a whole fish during the Lunar New Year festivities is seen as a harbinger of well-being and prosperity.

The Lunar New Year parade largely followed Mott Street, with performers pausing at the intersection with Canal Street to give the audience shows of paper dragons swirling in the air, extravagantly bedecked lions leaping and prancing, and folk dancers waving colorful streamers. NYPD officers lined the sidewalks, pausing the procession at intervals so that cars could drive through. The crowd was so dense that many spectators could not see what was happening. One of them watched the show after climbing up on a traffic light. “I guess I’m just here for the audio experience,” another joked to her boyfriend.

There was indeed plenty of “audio” to experience. Loud pops followed by bursts in the air of sparkling bits of paper punctuated the drums, gongs, and cymbals that accompanied the lion dances. A Yorkshire terrier, carried in the arms of his owner, yapped excitedly whenever the music got loud. And a few uninterested pedestrians who had foolishly chose to egress across the parade area shouted at spectators to move their bodies and create a path, to little avail or sympathy.

“I am unfamiliar with all the customs of Lunar New Year,” said Emma, visiting from Austria. “There are not many Chinese in Germany, especially where I am from [in Klagenfurt]. Of course I came to New York to see many, many things, and everyone talks about how great the museums are, but it is also nice to see the culture outside of the big institutions.”

The latter half of the parade consisted largely of civic organization members in double-decker buses and vintage cars, waving banners and occasionally featuring a performance, including that of a Canto-pop singer. “It’s been so long since I heard Canto-pop in-person,” said a Guangzhou-born woman, wistfully.