by Feng Yingqiu
YANGON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- It has been more than a week that Chinatown in Myanmar's former capital, now a commercial city, has turned into festive atmosphere in anticipation of the fall of the Chinese traditional lunar new year.
Traffic on a main road running through the center of Chinatown in Yangon has become jammed day by day as it approaches the lunar new year.
Saying goodbye to the year of tiger, there comes the year of rabbit.
Several days ahead of the fall of the year of rabbit, hundreds of road-side stalls, erected along both sides of the Great Guangdong Street, which was known historically for Myanmar-Chinese, have been flooded with a large number of new year goods purchasers, both young and old, especially housewives.
Thousands of items of seasonal commodities highlighting "spring " filled the market which range from home-made Chinese traditional cake made of glutinous rice flour to various imported new year special purchase goods such as red lanterns in various sizes, replicas of firecracker, golden blocks and coins, paintings featuring the spring festival including antithetical couplets, sweets and biscuits, meat and vegetable, and other decoration materials for the festival.
Some residential houses and shops were seen busy with sweeping and decorating, as people believe that sweeping away the old dust brings in booming business.
The famous 19th Street in the Chinatown, where small restaurants line up, is re-decorated to greet customers this new year, offering the availability of roast meat and Chinese cuisine with strong beer.
The Myanmar Beer company still offered all shops free of charge for their advertisement materials to attract customers as it did in the last year of tiger.
Some days before the new year comes, joyful children have been seen in small groups beating up their minor drums and making rehearsal for house-to-house call with small lion dance performances when the new year falls on Thursday, the 3rd of February.
Zhou Baofu, an event organizer told Xinhua that a festive procession by 14 local Myanmar-Chinese amateur lion and dragon dancing groups in the Chinatown will spark Yangon's new year activities on Wednesday, the eve of the new year.
A series of lion dance competitions, involving the 14 amateur lion dancing groups are to take place on Sint Oh Dan Street and the contests will run from the second day of the new calendar year for four consecutive nights until Monday, Feb. 7, and a prize presentation ceremony for the first and the second winning lion dancing groups will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 8, when they will repeat their excellent performances, he said.
The four-day competitions include ground dancing and on-table dancing, he added.
At a time when the lunar new year is drawing near, the Chinese community is launching traditional charity activities with several social and religious organizations distributing cash aid to poor and old-aged people above 70 with no children to care for them. These organizations mainly include the biggest Myanmar-Chinese Charity Association, Qing Fu Gon Temple, Guangdong Guanyin Temple and Mutai Temple as well as some private companies and individual businessmen. Cash donation ceremonies have been held one after another for them a week before the fall of the new year.
As a pre-celebration in greeting the new year, such local Chinese associations as Koo Lun and Panda had launched their performances as in previous years.
Moreover, Chinese companies investing in Myanmar also held a get-together function at the Sedona Hotel to greet the new year.
Other local Chinese cultural associations are now also making preparations for celebrating the traditional spring festival, conducting rehearsals of their musical and dancing programs to be presented at their respective cultural shows scheduled on the new year days.
The Overseas Chinese New Year Carol Singing Group, organized by the community dignitaries, and local Guangdong Music Band, organized spontaneously by amateur music lovers from younger generation, are leading in staging performances with songs and dances on the 1st and 3rd of the new calendar year respectively.
Inherited with Chinese traditions and customs, on the eve of the new year, all family members try to come back home from wherever they are for the new year. Families of Chinese residents, used to prepare their meal in the nicest form all year round which is rich with meat, especially pork, chicken and duck, wine and beverages, and have their lunches deliciously after paying worship to their ancestors, the signboards of whom are generally erected at the wall of their apartments for almost all families.
Children are given new clothes and red envelopes containing pocket money.
Myanmar-Chinese family members used to spend the new year eve by staying up late or all night to observe the moment of changing to a new calendar year.
