Chinese New Year (Spring Festival春节) in Manchester
Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year农历新年), commonly known as the Spring Festival (春节) in China. The Spring Festival is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese calendar, and it lasts for 15 days. Spring Festival is celebrated with family and food.
The Chinese communities throughout the world, mainly those in Eastern and South-East Asia, celebrate the Chinese New Year in the main cities’ Chinatown. With the arrival of Chinese immigrants from many different countries, Chinese New Year Festival celebrations have spread across the world. Overseas Chinese communities have established Chinatowns in major cities such as New York, Paris, London, Liverpool, and Manchester etc. Manchester Chinatown has become the most popular tourist attraction outside of London. The locals love to take part in Chinese New Year Festival celebrations in the cold winter month in China Town. It's different and fun!
With the changing times and the need to prevent environmental pollution, many Chinese cities have banned firecrackers with the celebrations, but this doesn’t affect the happy atmosphere of the festival in China. Luckily, in Manchester, China Town firecrackers are still allowed. Having Firecrackers is a favourite activity for the children during the Spring festival. According to legend, the firecrackers drive off evil spirits. The continuous noise of firecrackers can be heard all around and far afield, adding to the atmosphere of rejoicing and celebrating.
Manchester, China Town, hold a festival street fair with amazing fireworks displays, great music and dance, acrobatics and martial arts performed by talented artists from various cultural organisations, Chinese schools, music schools and martial arts schools.
The wonderful dragon dance and the Lion dance performance are the highlights of the Spring Festival. Together with various Performing Arts and Crafts, Chinese food and drinks, the Festival attracts thousands of visitors each year to China Town. Also, to the visitors, the delicious mouth-watering smell coming from the street food stalls, the mesmerising drumming noises of the Dragon and Lion dance and the loud cracking of the firecrackers are absolutely out of this world! Chinese New Year Festival celebrations in Chinatown and Albert Square are always buzzing, full of colours and sounds, making it such a memorable annual event. It is an enjoyable and great day out in Chinatown for many families and children.
The Federation of Chinese Associations of Manchester (FCAM) was established in 1992. They organised the Manchester China Town Chinese New Year celebration every year. FCAM invites the Mayors of Greater Manchester to join the celebrations in China Town. It is the largest Chinese event in the North West. Thousands of tourists and the local communities joined the celebrations. It is well-known internationally.
Chinese New Year- Temple in Manchester
On Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese people around the world head to the temples after the family dinner to celebrate the arrival of the Lunar New Year. The temple is open on New Year's Eve from 23:00 to 02:00. The Chinese people gather together at the temples to burn incense and ring bells to pray for prosperity, longevity and happiness. They pray to mark the Chinese New Year celebration. In Manchester, the Chinese people attend Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) at Old Trafford M16 9AF and Zhen Quai Tang True Buddha (真贵堂) temples at Open Shaw M11 2NT.
Chinese New Year - Charity Work
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, MCC volunteers participate in a lot of charity work in Manchester. The charity work involves providing food parcels to Senior Chinese Communities, Churches, Homeless people and Community Centers; and other work with local Charitable Organisations. We express our gratitude to our volunteers and sponsors for their continued unwavering support, especially over the past few years when the world recession has hit the economy hard due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With their full support, Chinese New Year celebrations have always been a complete success and such a joy.
2014 Chinese New Year Party was organised by Manchester Chinese Centre for the homeless people at the Mustard Tree, Oldham Road.
Those we love don't go away, they walk beside us every day. Unseen, unheard, but always near, still loved, still missed and very dear.
Chinese New Year - Celebration at School
"2014 Chinese New Year, each year the mainstream schools are extremely busy running a different type of educational workshops for their pupils. Children love to take part in the Lion Dance, Dragon Dance and Calligraphy." said teacher Jiang.
Adult Education
The Adult Education ESOL English group celebrated Chinese New Year. The Festival is being shared with the broader community. They learn to say “Kung Hei Fat Choi”!
Chinese New Year - BBC Children Programme
To celebrate the festival, MCC worked very closely with BBC children’s programmes like Blue Peter, Newsround, and CBeebies. Our children are the Chinese New Year ambassadors. They not only performed Chinese dance at the Blue Peter TV show and on stage in China Town; also, they enjoyed teaching the BBC Blue Peter TV presenter how to make Dim Sum. It is important for Chinese children to be involved in TV programmes to gain an awareness of the media profession, as so far, not many young Chinese people have gone into media as a career.
Interview with the MCC children
Blue Peter filming
Making Dumplings
Making Dim Sum
CBeebies presenter playing with our children
