In different cultural centres across Canada, people are learning the steps to lion dancing, decorating paper lanterns, and perfecting ink calligraphy. This weekend, Lunar New Year is not only a time to spend with your loved ones and feast—it is also a time to get creative!

For the past few months, the Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV) and their community partners have been celebrating the Year of the Snake! They have been inviting the Vancouver community to participate in constructing gigantic artistic snake sculptures—one that is now laying inside the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and the other, a lantern snake that will slither its way through Granville Island’s Chinese New Year Procession on February 10th. The lantern snake will also take part in Vancouver’s Chinese New Year Parade on February 17th. The events don’t just stop here with the  CACV, as they have tons going on! To follow the snakes and other CACV events, please visit cacv.ca/snake.

The LunarFest, which happens in Toronto (February 8-10th) and in Vancouver (February 15-17th), is a  festival that has something for all ages—from music performances and workshops involving traditional Chinese instruments to their Lantern Jungle that will surely keep kids entertained. LunarFest will also feature « Lion Dancers of the World » which will introduce festival attendees to lion dancing (in the form of lanterns) from 6 different regions and cultures (Korea, Japan, India, Taiwan, Northern China and Southern China). To find out more about the LunarFest, visit lunarfest.org.

There are festivities happening all around Canada both big and small! In shopping centres like Pacific Mall (Markham), there will be free performances throughout the weekend. At a local library branch (Riverdale Community, Toronto), they will be holding a Chinese New Year Celebration on Saturday where craft-making is involved. I’ve only scratched the surface of events celebrating the Lunar New Year!

Do you know of other exciting Lunar New Year’s celebrations? Write to me at lisa[at]artbridges.ca as I’d love to learn more about different creative celebrations surrounding Lunar New Year in Canada—especially if there are events for Seollal (Korean New Year), Tết (Vietnamese New Year) or Mongolian New Year’s!

By the way, I drink the least amount of coffee in this office! However, when I do drink it, my drink of preference is Vietnamese iced coffee. As I kid, I loved watching my uncle make a cup and just stare at the contraption as the coffee slowly dripped from the filter above and down into a pool of condensed milk at the bottom of the glass.

Memories such as this one are reminders to me that even the smallest experiences have shaped who I’ve become, which is why celebrating my heritage is so important to me. The days leading up to Lunar New Year are filled with New Year’s preparations and frequent calls to relatives to initiate plans for epic family feasts. New Year’s Eve at my home is spent around dinner tables and living rooms where three languages (Cantonese, Vietnamese and English) are bounced around four generations between bites of food and between folding joss papers into gold bar shapes to be later burned as offerings to our ancestors.

As I’ve been working at ArtBridges for four years, I’ve changed roles as much as a snake sheds its skin. I started off researching community arts initiatives and seeing what was going on in Canada. I have, over time, helped maintain our database and blog, making sure things are organized behind the scenes. So while you don’t hear much from me, I’m always busy in the background!

So to everyone celebrating this weekend, I wish you a happy and prosperous new year!

– Lisa Tran, Social Network Developer & Communications Assistant

photo credit: ippoippo