Happy lunar new year! I’ve been to celebrations of Chinese New Year in Chicago and Singapore, and this year I added London to that list. A couple friends and I staked out a spot on the parade route before 10am (on a Sunday! me! I’m surprised, too).
In perfect London form, the weather was chilly but dry right up until the parade came by us — at which point it started raining. It didn’t matter, we just kept moving. Unlike other parades I’ve been to, this one was small enough that at the points where the route turned a corner, the dancers would do an extended routine on the corner and the rest of the parade just stopped until it was over. This made it easy to walk backwards past the floats and buses containing soggy dignitaries and businessmen, to find the lion dancers and adorably costumed schoolchildren.
After the parade, we lucked into seats at a busy establishment for delicious dim sum, and as we walked away from the restaurant we passed an elaborate dragon dance in Trafalgar Square — an auspicious start to the new year.
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What a great celebration of multiculturalism!