The normally busy streets of Chinatown were extra packed on Sunday. Crowds stood four rows deep along Mott Street to watch the 10th Annual Chinese Lunar New Year Parade. Bright colored confetti floated through the sky and littered the sunlit streets. The temperature in the low 40’s made it a perfect day for the festivities.
The parade featured floats built by local groups and businesses, confetti, martial arts students, and traditional music. But most came to see the colorful cloth dragons dance down the street. The dragons symbolize goodness, fertility, vigilance and poise. The dances performed at the New Year symbolize the bringing of good luck and success in the coming year.
Spectators from all over Manhattan and all over the country pushed through the police barricades and lined the streets to see the bright red and gold floats and dragons as they rolled down the street. Children perched on the shoulders of their elders and everyone fought to catch glimpses of the famous dragons. Many different circumstances brought the wide range of viewers to the neighborhood. Many were at the parade for the first time.
“We originally came down for Dim Sum to celebrate my wife’s birthday,” said Peter Zwiebach. “We stayed for the parade because we had never been before and thought the kids would really enjoy it.”
Some see watching the parade as a right of passage upon moving to New York City.
“We just moved here so this is our first time seeing the parade,” said Shalini Jain. “We really enjoyed it but I was surprised by how short the actual parade was.”
Steve Vaccaro brought his kids to the parade because he likes the family atmosphere of the parade.
“We come every year,” said Vaccaro. “I think it’s a much better way to celebrate the start of the New Year than New Year’s Eve, which is all about sex and drinking.”
For some it was a way to get in touch with the community.
“I came out because I needed to take a break from homework,” said Mona Mehra, an NYU student who lives in the area. “It seemed like a good way to see the community that I live in.”
The parade also brought tourists from all over the country to the neighborhood for the day. Some tourists, like Bill Racer, said it reminded them of their own communities.
“It reminds me of parades we have at home for Shrimpfest. It’s a community thing,” said Racer. He and his wife were in New York visiting for the week from Florida.
