Feature: Texans fascinated by more fabulous celebrations for Lunar New Year-Xinhua

Feature: Texans fascinated by more fabulous celebrations for Lunar New Year

Source: Xinhua| 2023-01-17 13:27:30|Editor:

People perform lion dance to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year in Houston, Texas, the United States, Jan. 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Xu Jianmei)

HOUSTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Texas, the second most populous U.S. state, is embracing Lunar New Year celebrations popping up more fabulously than before in places ranging from public libraries to children's museums, local bars, and Asian restaurants in both big cities and some small towns.

POST Houston, a downtown entertainment and cultural hub in the state's largest city, hosted a massive Lunar New Year festival on Sunday with eye-catching performances, a carnival-like Asian pop-up market featuring food vendors, games, crafts and other cultural activities, as well as a grand party in the night.

Lion and dragon dances, accompanied by the booming, rhythmic beating of drums and gongs, especially whipped up a festive atmosphere, gaining rapturous applause and cheers from a big packed crowd of more than 1,000 spectators.

"It was beautiful...Everyone's getting so excited. My daughter especially loves to see that," Courtney Brooks, a full-time mother wearing a gorgeous traditional Chinese dress, told Xinhua after watching the performance. "We've never seen that or been around that, so it was a great experience for us."

Across the state, a variety of celebrations to welcome the Year of Rabbit will last for up to two weeks.

In Chinatown, the Houston Chinese Community Center invited all to join their 2023 Lunar New Year Festival on Saturday. The free, family-orientated outdoor event includes exciting cultural performances and delicious food inspired by Lunar New Year traditions across Asia.

For Dallas and Fort Worth residents, the Asia Times Square Development, one of the largest Asian markets in Texas, is ready to fuel a festival fun with treats including lion and dragon dances, sumo demonstrations, cosplay contests, children activities, culinary offerings as well as a firecracker show on the coming weekend.

On select nights over the course of two weeks, a boat parade carrying lanterns in the shapes of animals in homage to the zodiac signs will float along San Antonio's famed attraction, the River Walk.

In the capital city of Texas, Austin Public Library will run educational activity stations with themes in Chinese culture on Saturday, ringing in the Year of the Rabbit.

The Lone Star state "has never really gone all out for the celebrated Chinese festival, not like people over on the West Coast. But thankfully, times are changing that," said a recent report from the Thrillist, a U.S. online media website covering food, drink, travel and entertainment.

In recent years, Texans have seen more and more festivity in the big cities, and even the smaller towns now have at least some kind of "red and gold" situation going on, though sparsely, the report observed.

"We don't have a lot of that in the past in Houston, drawing people in from any backgrounds," said Brooks. "It's a great representation of the culture...It's just a great way for people to accept it, respect it, and also embrace it."

Getting into the spirit of Lunar New Year, the woman said her hope for the Year of the Rabbit is "health, happiness, prosperity, peace for everyone, and equality for everybody, every culture and what everybody deserves to have in this world, in America and everywhere."

People perform dragon dance to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year in Houston, Texas, the United States, Jan. 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Xu Jianmei)

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