Chinese New Year

On Sunday we went to watch the festivities of Chinese New Year. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day with just enough cold breeze to remind you it was still winter! The day started off with a street parade that ending in Trafalgar Square (we didn't see much of this - too many people) followed by an opening ceremony spoken in three different languages. As well as this ceremony there were lots of different activities including a firecrakers display around the city.

One of the many Chinese New Year Dragons in the street parade.


Us enjoying the beautiful sunny day!


Before the dragons began their dancing they had

to be woken up. This involved a special ceremony

with candles, inscents, some speeches and then the

dragons are woken up by having their eyes coloured in!


These were the junior dragon dancers. They were

all under the age of 12. They were very good.

After watching the opening ceremony, the dragon and dog dancers we braved the crowds and headed to China Town. This is the main street and as you can see it was extremely crowded. Almost all of the restaurants had lines with people waiting for a table stretching out the front doors! Our lunch consisted of a box of fortune cookies which the four of us managed to polish off quite quickly (so far none of our fortunes have come true!) followed by a traditional English pub lunch.

This is the view from the back of Trafalgar Square. As you

can see it was jam packed with people! If you look

closely you can see two dragons dancing in front of the stage.


These were Kelly's favourite - the Chinese dogs!