By Kourtney Webb
The Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce will celebrate its first Lunar New Year Celebration Wednesday at the historic Flushing Town Hall.
The Lunar New Year is one of the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Originally associated with the lunar-solar Chinese calendar, the holiday was a celebration to honor household and heavenly gods and goddesses and bring families together. After the adoption of the Western calendar in 1912, China joined in celebrating New Year’s on Jan. 1. But China continues to celebrate the Lunar New Year as well.
The event will feature the best of Flushing’s diverse multicultural neighborhood. Chef and owner of Flushing’s Dumpling Galaxy, Helen You, will be making special Chinese cuisine eaten for the celebration, including a prosperity toss or Yusheng (a colorful platter of shredded vegetables, pickled ginger and salmon), roasted suckling pig, golden dumplings, longevity noodles, sushi and more.
The celebration will also feature a colorful lion show. Performers adorn themselves in huge papier-mâché lion heads and brightly colored tails, dancing and spinning. The dance will be performed by the Mui Fa Lion and Unicorn Dance Team, Korea Taekwondo Martial Arts Studio and the Chinese Cheongsam Association in New York to usher in good fortune, for the year of the rooster.
The event begins at 6:15 p.m. at Flushing Town Hall, which is at 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Tickets are $28 at the door.
