It’s not Dragonstone! It’s Chinatown, celebrating the Year of the Dragon in the 26th Lunar New Year parade.
On Sunday afternoon, thousands gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year of the Dragon, donning traditional attire, performing lion and dragon dances amid the sound of a firecracker under the continuous barrage of confetti.
State and city executives and politicians occupied the stage, including Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, Assemblymember Grace Lee, and Jennifer Rajkumar. They congratulated the Asian community for making the Lunar New Year a state school holiday.
The mile-long procession began its march at Mott St. and Hester St. towards Chatham Square, with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer leading the charge. The parade then snaked through E. Broadway to end at Forsyth St. and Grand St.
Performers and acrobats amazed spectators with dragon dances just behind a rally of vintage cars as the crowd fired their confetti poppers.
Linda Lee, mother of two, can’t help but bring her little ones into Chinatown to experience their first parade.
“I am just excited about my boys experiencing this new year in one of the most amazing places on the face of this planet,” she said. “They are covid babies. So, this is their first time out here in the streets, and they are old enough to enjoy the true spirit of the lunar new year.”
Commissioner Manuel Castro at the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs led a procession down lower Manhattan, joining thousands of others in celebrating Asian culture.
“We wish our hardworking immigrants and Chinese American communities a lot of good luck and health this new year.”
Diana Peterson, born and raised in NYC, joins the parade every year and is delighted to see New Yorkers celebrate her culture.
“I am a proud daughter of an immigrant family,” she said. “This is the new beginning. We have to do the things that make us happy. This is all about the goodness of life and having family time. This is what the new year is about. “
The annual New Year parade and festival was started by Steven Tin in the 1990s to present Chinese American culture and boost the Chinatown economy by bringing foot traffic back to town, which fled to New Jersey to celebrate their new year.
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