On Sunday, January 26, we rang in the Year of the Rat and a new cycle of the Chinese zodiac in joyful spirits.
The day’s entertainment started with the annual Spring Festival Parade through the streets of Vancouver’s Chinatown and continued at Temple Fair, where attendees were regaled with New Year storytelling, traditional Chinese musical performances by Selena Yu and Cilin Jiang, and lion dance and martial arts performances by Mah’s Athletic Association (a crowd favourite).
We also got creative with festive crafts and a calligraphy contest, where attendees showed off their impressive skills! Congratulations to Alejandro Cadena, whose beautiful piece took home the prize: a specialty Garden tea set.
Despite the cold, we kept warm with tea tastings and hot food from True NOSH.
Some of our favourite moments happened at Jade Water Pavilion.
Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate the Lunar New Year. We hope to see you all again next time for the Year of the Ox!
Special thanks to Jonathan Desmond and William Luk for capturing these beautiful photographs of the day!