Kung hei fat choi!

Happy New Year to those who celebrate it around the world.

It’s been fun this week learning more about the Chinese culture and traditions during this week, particularly the food. After all, it’s as influential as the Greek-Latin culture in Europe.

This is the year of the goat. Your sign is goat if you’re born on one of this years: 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003. Apparently, this is going to be an important and lucky year for you.

It is the longest public holiday in the Chinese calendar. It started on Thursday, 19th February. But, the street celebrations in London were today. On their website, they say London holds the biggest celebration outside of Asia. What do you think? I’ve never seen this anywhere else.

Then, heavens opened in the afternoon. I still managed to see some performances and the general environment, which were really good. I shot some pictures and a couple of short videos with my mobile, which are being uploaded now and which I’ll post here too.

I just loved the cheery disposition of the presenters on the stages and of the members of the public.

Cute, aren’t they? Which one are you?

I didn’t get to see much of the parade, just a bit of the dragon, because it was crowded. So, I walked around Chinatown and Trafalgar Square to check all of the rest. There were two stages, many stalls where they sold little toys and some lovely, giant decorations (below) that everyone was looking at with curiosity.

The smaller stage was on Shaftesbury Avenue. They showcased there a variety of performances from the various Chinese associations, such as traditional dance and martial arts. I didn’t know that martial arts were invented by a woman. One of the guys on stage explained that may be the reason why many movements aren’t based on strength.

Some of the toys I referred to. There were also food stalls around Trafalgar and many of the Chinese restaurants were selling food outdoors too. Yes, people were actually eating on the street despite the rain.

The main stage was on Trafalgar Square. I really felt for the artists, as the performances were amazing, but the attendance was not that great after the rain started.

It was interesting to see Nelson and co surrounded by Chinese lanterns.

The one thing that I disliked were the political references. Labour had one big stall near Leicester Sq tube station, which I hadn’t seen below. Chinese Telecom was also present, and I couldn’t help feeling like they might be as important as BT in the near future.

Thanks for checking my post, and good luck all during this year!

A Londoner from Afar