Chinese New Year Festival

Came for the first time in Honolulu and the Chinese New Year's festival was fun. Lots of organized activities throughout the day and lots of food booths as well. Walking the streets was fun as well to see the blessings of stores by the lion dancers amongst daily shoppers and tourists. Everyone seemed well behaved, out to enjoy the activities. Parking at the lots was slow but not impossible. If you're an American Savings Bank member, you can take part in their valet parking.

Wonderful experience. Definitely a must for families. A great mixture of tradition and contemporary views. Store shops stayed open late to accommodate the crowds. Strong Police presence made us feel safe and able to enjoy the evening. Parking is available at the municipal parking lots. Suggest you make a reservation for dinner at your favorite restaurant to enjoy after the parade.

Great night tonight 2/2. Chinese cultural plaza had a lot of food places to choose from. They had pop up stores selling all sorts of stuff. And they had taichi and dancers on stage tonight. Walking around chinatown you will see different dragons dancing and the firecrackers popping.

Attended the Chinese Cultural Plaza festival put on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce last night. Also last night was the Choy Cheng event where different lion dance clubs visit the Chinatown businesses to bring luck. It's usually held on the Friday before the new year every year. FYI, the Night in Chinatown with the food, merch and activity stalls will be tomorrow (Saturday) and it's a lot more crowded. We went super early around 5 pm to miss the crowds- wasn't too busy at all! There were a bunch of vendors selling merch and food inside the courtyard. The Narcissus court and officials made their appearance on the stage followed by the gathering of the different clubs. We fueled up with all kinds of treats and food. Recommend Youbo hand tossed noodles and Bo's Kitchen. The popular ones have long lines. Throughout the night there were performances on the stage. After getting the food, it was time to choose a club and follow it down Manukea and adjoining streets. So much fun with the drumming, dancing, firecrackers and watching the lions try to get the "choy" hanging up in front of the businesses' doors. Glad we brought masks because it got pretty smoky with all the firecrackers but we need to remember the ear plugs next year. It's a great way to catch some Chinese culture and sample foods and get merch without being overwhelmed with crowds.

Shout out to Jo Y. I didn't know about this page until I saw her post an amazing review recently. I also didn't know the significance of all the ingredients in jai, until I read Jo's review. Sure, I grew up watching Popo cook it, but she was a woman of few words LOLWhen you're younger, it's easy to take for granted the customs and traditions in your family. As a kid, we were not having in depth conversations with our elders. So as an adult parent, it's critically important to talk to our kids about Chinese New Year customs and traditions, in hopes that they will carry on the legacy of our heritage.As a kid, Chinese New Year meant lion dances, firecrackers, and red envelops. Now as an adult, without Popo to cook the traditional dishes, we conjur up the recipes and make it for our kids to celebrate the Lunar New Year.Since Jo Y. provided a detailed description of jai in her review, I'm going to focus this review on dessert dumplings. Mostly because Jo Y. gifted us with a nice bag of candied squash (for the filling) :) Also to acknowledge my Popo for letting me watch her cook before she passed away.From what I know, the cooked sweet rice flour, similar to mochi, is the "glue" that holds the family together. In this case, Jo Y. made us a delicious gau and I cherish the "glue" that bonds Yelp Friends :)Now, I'm not sure the meaning behind candied squash as a filling in dessert dumplings but it was Popo's favorite so she didn't use red bean paste nor black sesame seed paste. I remember that she mixed a little water with the flour, rolled it into balls, flattened it out, and placed a chunk of candied squash in the middle. She'd roll it all uniformly then drop it into boiling water. As these cooked, it floated to the top of the boiling water, where she scooped it out, and then she'd roll it in chopped peanuts. We also ate dessert dumplings with a little ginger or pandan syrup. It's chewy. It's sweet. It's a Chinese New Year tradition in our house!

This was my first "Chinese New Year" in Hawaii after living in Hawaii for 13 years. A friend who is an executive of wahngailiondancehawaii invited me to an event at the Chinese Cultural Center. The event venue was filled with a large number of people and the heat was hot. The intense rhythm of taiko drums and cymbals to the lion dance performed on poles and the cheering of the audience filled the venue with excitement. After the performance, the lion goes around the audience and asks them to put a bill in their mouth. Of course, I also fed the banknotes to several line-on. Various events have been canceled or reduced due to the corona pandemic, but I am really happy that such a grand festival was held this year. I hope that 2023 will be the year Hawaii can ride on this momentum and provide a safe and wonderful experience for many tourists.ハワイに13年間住んでいて、ハワイで初めての「中国の旧正月」でした。 wahngaliondancehawaii の幹部である友人が、中国文化センターでのイベントに招待してくれました。 イベント会場は大勢の人でにぎわい、熱気がこもりました。 太鼓やシンバルの強烈なリズムに、竿で繰り広げられる獅子舞、観客の歓声が会場を熱狂させた。 公演後、獅子が客席を一周し、お札を口に入れるように言います。 もちろん、複数のラインオンにも紙幣を投入しました。 コロナ禍で様々なイベントが中止・縮小されていますが、今年はこのような盛大なお祭りが開催できたことを本当に嬉しく思います。 2023年がこの勢いに乗って、ハワイが多くの観光客に安全で素晴らしい体験を提供できる年になることを願っています。

Kung Hei Fat Choy (wish for health, happiness and wealth)! Happy Chinese Lunar Year, the Year of the Rabbit to all! Chinese New Year arrives on the first day of the first new moon and is actually celebrated for 15 days from the New Moon to the Full Moon, which is usually between Jan. 19 through early Feb. 20. For 2023, Chinese New Year falls on Jan. 22. (Yes, many times it coincides with the Punahou Carnival and Super Bowl!)Being of Chinese heritage and as my mother was of first generation from China, I grew up with the many traditional Chinese customs that I thought were too numerous to mention, not only For Chinese New Year, but for daily living and celebrations of other Chinese holidays. Looking back in hindsight, I am more appreciative of these customs now, as they define who I am and its importance to my parents and their ancestors. These are some of the customs that we followed:* Making and eating of nien gau, or we call it "gau." We would mix glutinous rice flour with dissolved Chinese brown sugar and water and steam it for hours until the sticky rice flour became silky. The stickiness of the gau was a symbol of the family sticking together. Sesame seeds sprinted on top was a hope for fertility, and the red date in the center is a reminder of the color red for good luck. My mother would steam gau numerous times for days in banana leaves, then slice them to give to family, friends and neighbors. I still continue this tradition today, except that I've adjusted the recipe so that the gau does not harden (like a rubber eraser as days go by), which is traditionally Chinese, but instead remains soft and sticky. I still steam the gau for three hours at a time, but use smaller containers and wrap them with red paper. Many people now microwave or bake them or find it more convenient just to buy them.* Making and eating of jai or monk's food (vegetarian dish). This was an old custom that Buddhist monks did not eat meat as it was wrong to kill an animal. There was great symbolism with its ingredients: bamboo shoots (long life); tiger lily roots (gold, wealth, prosperity); fungus (longevity & immortality); mushrooms (to welcome spring); hair-fine seaweed (to get rich); dry bean curd (bring blessings to household); long rice (long life); gingko nuts (wealth); lotus seeds (many children); chestnuts (sweetness in life); peanuts (birth & promotion). As with gau, my mother would prepare the many ingredients and cook potfuls of them all week to be given to family, friends and neighbors. I do not make this, as it is labor-intensive, and for many, it's an acquired taste. The taste of jai varies greatly depending on who makes it. I prefer just to buy it from a restaurant.* Making and eating jin dui. When pronounced in Chinese, it sounds like plenty money, meaning wishing you lots of money. My mother would laboriously fry these in oil with filling of black sugar and coconut/peanuts by "smashing" the crust over and over against the sides of the wok so that there would be an airy ball with a thin crust and not a thick doughy ball. I do not make this, as it is labor intensive. I buy them, but very few restaurants make it this way.* Eating a sumptuous feast with the family BEFORE the new year. Symbolizing happiness, this is to complete the year and is a time of thanksgiving for all the year's blessings. Dinner is always held on a round table, representing the family circle, a sign of unity and cohesiveness. * We would receive li see (red money envelopes) for good luck by parents, relatives, and friends. Amount given should end in an even digit, as odd numbers are associated with funerals.* Candied fruits of lotus roots, watermelon, carrots, coconuts, kumquat, water chestnuts, ginger, squash are eaten with tea to sweeten the year with happiness.* Other cultural traditions: firecrackers with loud blasts were lit to drive away bad luck. Homes were cleaned before the New Year to get rid of any bad fortune and make way for incoming good luck (sweeping is never done on the 1st day of the New Year for fear of sweeping away good luck and fortune). Oranges and tangerines were stacked in a triangle for good luck, happiness and prosperity. Red paper scrolls would be taped at our front door for prosperity, fame, good health, good conscience, and peaceful death. We would view lion dances, as they symbolized life, luck and virility, as well as chasing away evil spirits. The Chinese zodiac cycle of 12 animals (rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, ox, tiger) influences one's horoscope, personality and love compatibility based on the birth year. 2023 is the year of the rabbit.Through generations, we lose many of these traditions as our ancestors pass away and the next generations become more Americanized. I'm glad that I continue with some of them and have good memories of how these traditions have made me proud of my cultural heritage.

Nice to see the Chinatown Festival return this year. My wife and I look forward to it every year. It's a bit smaller, less vendors, and it's only one day instead of two but it's a nice start and I am sure it will get bigger and better every year. We go for the food and I was a little disappointed that there was not a whole lot of Chinese cuisine being sold. We only found one vendor on Beretania Street that offered jin dui, a must have at this festival, and they were also selling waffle dogs. It was also nice to visit the Cultural Plaza celebration that was also toned down a bit. Oh well, it's a great start for the year anyway.

This is my 2nd time celebrating Chinese New Year in China Town area of Oahu. I found the advertisement on Facebook, screenshotted it, and sent it to a group of friends to see if anyone was interested in joining us. The celebration was advertised for Jan 14, 2023 to begin at 9am and end at 10pm. This year was the Year of the Rabbit. We ended up going with a group of 4 people. There's plenty of underground parking so we found the closest one to the area it was being hosted in and walked over. The parking only cost us $3 for 2 hrs. Although the festivities began earlier in the day, it was really hot and we didn't feel like walking around in the sun so we got there right after it got dark, around 7pm. The place was really crowded and certain roads were blocked off for people to walk around on. Police and ambulances were on standby at the edge of the blockades just in case anything bad happened. There were stages in multiple areas and you could here the sound of drums and percussion instruments coming from one of the stages in the park. The blocked off road hosted a bunch of vendors selling food, trinkets and Chinese New Year items. It was nice getting to see such a large amount of people come together again to enjoy the celebration since covid started. We did try to keep our distance and used hand sanitizer constantly though. We were lucky enough to arrive right before the big finale and found a spot right in the front of the stage. They were setting things up when we noticed everyone start to gather. It was a good thing we found a place close enough to enjoy the show because it got so crowded afterwards that we could not move anywhere. The performance group wore bright green uniforms and the dragons were shades of green, black, white and bright pink. It was an amazing scene! I loved the part where the dragon dancers started jumping from one pole to the other to retrieve the flowers and you knew that someone was sitting on another person's shoulders while they did that under the dragon costume. Crazy! It was enjoyable and I tried to record as much as I could. Everyone had their phones out! It was also nice of them to toss out good luck oranges and rabbit dolls into the crowd for free. I wasn't a lucky catcher though, lol.After the dragon dance, they announced that the baby lion was going to be performing in the crowd. We made our way over to see what was going on and it was the cutest thing. The group had child performers in the lion costume and everyone was putting donations in the mouth of the lion for good luck. We all gave a few dollars to the lion and made our way to the vendors. Although we were hungry by the end of the night, we had plans to eat at a restaurant near by and every food vendor had a super long line waiting already. Instead, we visited the other vendors with souvenirs and other trinkets. Our friends picked up Chinese New Year envelopes to give to their kids and we checked out the crystals, bracelets and chimes. There were people walking around with Chinese Dragon puppets too and I thought those were beautiful. As we made our way back to the parking garage, we saw a bunch of stores still open that decorated for Chinese New Year. They even had tables out in the front of their store entrances selling more Chinese New Year items. Almost every restaurant was packed too and China Town has plenty to choose from! We chose to go somewhere less crowded though. Our experience was an awesome one but I know I gave this rating 4 stars instead of 5. The reason for that was because China Town is known to be a bit dirty due to the amount of homeless people in the area and the lack of trash management. There were parts of the town that smelt like pee and poo. I was told that because of the lack of restrooms, a lot of people will relieve themselves in the open parking lots behind people's vehicles. There was also trash everywhere and every trashcan was over-flowing. Unless you don't mind these things, I recommend coming out and experiencing Chinese New Year at least once. It's a big thing here and there's a celebration every weekend of January in different parts of the island. The next one will be on the 21st of Jan and I plan on going again.Hope you have a blast and enjoy your experience!

Happy New Year of the Fire Rooster!According to the Lunar Calendar, we celebrate the beginning of a new animal year sometime towards the end of January or the beginning half of February. There are twelve animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat/ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. There are five elements: fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. This means that there are 5 cycles for each sign, so when you pass through the entire 5 cycles at age 60, you are "complete"!During Chinese New Year, I like to buy red envelopes for lee see (good luck money), jai (monk's food), a small animal that represents that year, jin dui (fried and stuffed mochi), gau (steamed mochi), and t-shirts. Feeding money to the Chinese lions is good luck, so I'll make sure I do that when they are around.Night time is really crowded. I like to go to "Night in Chinatown" (sponsored by the Chinatown Merchants and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce) in the daytime when there's more parking and less of a crowd. It's fun looking at the Narcissus plants, artwork, food vendors, and people - residents and tourists! If you have a chance, take a stroll down Maunakea Street - there's no admission fee! It's several blocks long, so wear walking shoes and bring a tote bag for your purchases! It's usually the weekend before Chinese New Year. The festival at the Cultural Plaza is about two weekends before Chinese New Year! So - there are two weekends of celebrating! Yay! Look for the schedule and check out the parade - that's a cool event also! And have a Happy New Year!Goong Hee Faht Choi!