The 12 months of the Dragon commences on Saturday, February 10, marking a brand new cycle within the lunar calendar. The occasion is well known with week-long festivities in China; right here in New York, cultural organizations throughout town are additionally providing a wide selection of actions starting from artwork exhibitions and calligraphy workshops to a pop-up teahouse and a collaborative culinary custom known as lo hei, which entails a number of friends tossing a single seafood salad with chopsticks. In September, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Lunar New 12 months into an official public school holiday — however in devastating information for youths, 2024’s celebration falls on a weekend.
Assume!Chinatown
Assume!Chinatown (T!C) is a coalition of devoted volunteers who host group occasions and artwork exhibitions for his or her Decrease Manhattan neighbors. This 12 months, the group is organizing a string of actions for the Lunar New 12 months, together with a lantern reveal on Saturday, February 10, and a pop-up teahouse at T!C’s studio house, the place creators promote conventional crafts. Artist Edward Cheng’s assortment of black-and-white images depicting Chinese language New 12 months customs might be on view in an exhibition titled Walking With Lions and Other Chinatown New Year Traditions. T!C will conclude its festivities on February 25 with a mahjong party in celebration of Cheng’s present.
Assume!Chinatown (thinkchinatown.org)
1 Pike Road, Chinatown, Manhattan
February 10–25
South Road Seaport Museum
Decrease Manhattan’s South Road Seaport Museum is partnering with the New York Chinese language Cultural Middle for a daylong 12 months of the Dragon celebration on February 17. The occasion will characteristic a standard lion dance, calligraphy classes, and a crafting workshop the place members can create paper-link chains that meld the normal Chinese language craft with the imagery of sign flags traditionally used on ships, a nod towards the Seaport Museum’s nautical focus.
South Road Seaport (theseaport.nyc)
Seaport Sq., Manhattan
February 17, 1pm–4:30pm
Brooklyn Public Library
Children desirous to make artwork also can head to a handful of Brooklyn Public Library areas within the coming weeks. On Saturday, February 10, households can go to the Mill Basin branch to listen to New 12 months-themed tales and songs, in addition to make a paper dragon. Youngsters can create dragon puppets on the Windsor Terrace Library on Monday, February 12, and on the Jamaica branch on Thursday, February 15. On February 21, guests to the Sunset Park location can view a sequence of performances staged by Asian Performing Arts. The library’s Dyker location is exhibiting a show of ink work by artist Lin Shaing Yuan, now on view via February 28.
Brooklyn Public Library (bklnlibrary.org)
Numerous areas
February 21, 3:30pm–4:30pm
Asian American Arts Alliance
The Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) close to Manhattan’s Bryant Park is internet hosting a Lo Hei Lunar New 12 months Celebration, an annual occasion the cultural advocacy group initiated in 2019. Lo Hei, or Yusheng, is a standard New 12 months’s follow popularized in Singapore through which friends contribute elements to a Cantonese-style uncooked seafood salad (accompanied with needs for the approaching 12 months), then come collectively to toss the salad with chopsticks — “the upper your toss, the upper your fortune’s progress,” A4 explains in its occasion description. The ritual might be adopted by dinner, drinks, and a raffle.
Asian American Arts Alliance (aaartsalliance.org))
29 West thirty eighth Road, ninth Ground, Manhattan
February 12, 6:30pm–9pm
Flushing City Corridor
In Flushing, Queens, which homes one of many largest Chinese language communities in New York Metropolis, the neighborhood’s historic city corridor is presenting a Lunar New 12 months artwork exhibition titled Keep in mind. The present, at the moment on view and ending on February 18, showcases the work of Queens-based Korean artist Woomin Kim and artist duo Lily & Honglei, a collaborative undertaking by Lily Xiying Yang and Honglei Li that explores the Chinese language immigrant expertise.
Flushing City Corridor (flushingtownhall.org)
137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, Queens
By way of February 18
Queens Botanical Backyard
A fast stroll from the City Corridor will carry you to the Queens Botanical Backyard, which is able to maintain a day of festivities on Sunday, February 18. Guests to the sprawling horticultural middle can view Tai Chi, lion dance, and musical performances, peruse retail and meals distributors, and partake in a paper-cutting workshop led by artist Ling Tang, amongst different actions.
Queens Botanical Backyard (queensbotanicalgarden.org)
43–50 Predominant Road, Flushing, Queens
February 18, 12pm–4pm
Brooklyn Youngsters’s Museum
On Sunday, February 11, the Brooklyn Youngsters’s Museum will host a daylong celebration that includes stay music, dance, and storytelling. Artist Nelson Leung will maintain a calligraphy workshop, authors Michele Wong McSween and Yobe Qiu will inform tales about Lunar New 12 months traditions, and youngsters can be taught Kung Fu in a workshop from the New York Chinese language Cultural Middle. The group group Chinatown Community Young Lions will current a lion dance parade.
Brooklyn Youngsters’s Museum (brooklynkids.org)
145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn
February 11, 10:30am–4:45pm
Wave Hill Public Backyard & Cultural Middle
On Saturday, February 10, children and their households can head to the Wave Hill Public Backyard & Cultural Middle within the Bronx, the place they’ll be capable of ring within the 12 months of the Dragon by crafting a fan impressed by the implausible creatures’ real-world cousins, reminiscent of snakes and lizards.
Wave Hill Public Backyard & Cultural Middle (wavehill.org)
4900 Independence Avenue, The Bronx
February 10, 10am–1pm
Metropolitan Museum of Artwork
The Metropolitan Museum of Artwork compiled a small assortment of assortment objects for a particular exhibition titled Celebrating the Year of the Dragon, on view via subsequent January. The works, which all depict the legendary serpent, span virtually two millennia, tracing the creature’s symbolic relevance in China. A knotted jade pendant, a remarkably well-preserved roof tile, and a silk and metallic-threaded medallion are among the many exhibition’s highlights.
Metropolitan Museum of Artwork (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Higher East Facet, Manhattan
By way of January 2025
Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Pageant
No dialogue of New York Metropolis’s Lunar New 12 months can be full with out point out of Chinatown’s Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Pageant, the annual parade that draws tens of hundreds of spectators and marchers. This 12 months’s occasion will begin at 10am on February 10 on the Grand Road intersection of Sara D. Roosevelt Park. Whereas children could also be disillusioned that they don’t have a time without work this 12 months, there’s no scarcity of the way to fill this coming Saturday.
Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Pageant (betterchinatown.com)
Sara D. Roosevelt Park at Grand Road, Chinatown, Manhattan
February 10, 11:00am–3:30pm