Chinese New Year

In most UK universities, students have a week off called "reading week" where you're supposed to catch up on your work... And reading of course! Since we didn't have much reading to do, we instead tried to fill our week with as many fun activities as possible. When I was at home Googling "events in London" before we got here, I remember seeing that Chinese New Year was during our reading week and had planned on going ever since.

After hearing more about it since being in London, we found out the schedule of events which included a parade and then a full day of performances in Trafalgar Square. We got up early and headed to the parade which was filled with dragons, beautiful Chinese costumes, and surprisingly dancers and performers from different countries. 

           
I thought since it was Chinese New Year, the parade would be celebrating their culture only, but it included dancers from Mexico and Ireland, as well as people in their native dress from several other countries. It was basically a world parade! 

Parades in the US are a lot different I've noticed though. This parade lasted for about 15 minutes while parades in America go on for hours! I definitely was confused when it ended so quickly. After though, there were performances on a huge stage that was set up in the center of Trafalgar.

Unfortunately, it was raining and really cold on Chinese New Year. This is pretty typical weather for London, but suprisingly I don't think it rained more than 5 times while we were there. We would have been fine with a little rain, but it was also freezing, so being outside all day seemed like a daunting task.

However, we really wanted to see a few of the performances so we ran to the front row and staked out a spot for two hours before the show started. By the time the performances started my feet were completely numb, but it was worth it because the Lion Dance was amazing. A Lion Dance is a traditional acrobatic performance where two people play the role of a lion who has to jump from tall, narrow, and far apart pegs. The lion costume in itself was beautiful and the Chinese costumes really have a way of making the animal come to life with the way the eyes can blink, the head tilt, and the tail wag. 

What the two people did inside that costume was all the more impressive. One person would grab the other by the waist and as the first person jumped they would be propelled by the other, while he ran across the pegs. Another thing they would do was have one person stand on the other's thighs so that the lion looked like he was standing on its hind legs. 

After awhile, the performers even kicked some pegs down so that they would have to jump even further to make it to the other side. It was incredible and showed off their skills as they made the performance look easy. 

 

We then watched a few singers and another acrobatic performance. During this, booths were all around selling Chinese goods like little toy dragons and snakes, since it is the year of the snake. We got a colorful folding dragon toy for 1 pound and played with it all day.

Around dinner time we headed towards Chinatown and got amazing Bubble Tea and Chinese food. We always wanted to try Bubble Tea since it became popular in NY, but we never got the chance to, so we thought we wouldn't find any better place to try it than in Chinatown.

It is basically a cold flavored tea with milk and jelly-like bubbles on the bottom. It was good and the jelly bubbles were brown sugar flavored. 

We then sat down for Chinese food. I got grilled chicken and vegetables and Cailin got sweet and sour chicken and dumplings. It was delicious! 

Finally, we went back to Trafalgar Square to see the fireworks. At that moment I felt so blessed to be studying abroad in London and watching fireworks in the center of the square. It was the perfect ending to such a fun celebration!