This weekend marks the start of many pre-Lunar New Year Festivities in the city. The New Year begins on February 7 (more information here), and there will be the firecracker ceremony and cultural festival in Chatham Square on that day, plus the Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown on February 10. There is also a Lunar New Year Parade in Flushing on February 9.
Today through Monday, the Museum of Chinese in America is holding the Fifth Annual Lunar New Year Flower Market at Columbus Park on Mulberry Street, between Bayard and Worth Streets. The Flower Market has arts & crafts activities, performances, and, of course, flowers. Explore Chinatown explains why flowers are so important during the lunar new year
:The flower market, such as this one, is a significant Chinese New Year kick-off event in many Asian countries. The flower is one of the most important and symbolic decorations: "fa" in Cantonese shares homonymic qualities to the word for fortune, "fat." Therefore, to have flowers blooming in one's home during the New Year is a prosperous and fortuitous sign. Among the propitious plants and flowers are azaleas, dahlias, chrysanthemums, peach and plum blossoms, peonies, narcissi, orchids and small orange trees.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden also has a Lunar New Year Celebration and Flower Market tomorrow, offering flowering fruit trees, lucky bamboo and more.
And if you were born in, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, or 1996, you're a Rat!
Photograph of Chinese New Year dragon by stinky pony on Flickr
