Iloilo Chinese New Year 2010 Celebration
Once again, China Town of Iznart street welcomes the Lunar Chinese New year 2010. The parade at iznart street kicks off with the Lion and Dragon dance presented by Federation of Iloilo Fire Brigade, then followed by various Chinese Schools in Iloilo City such as, Iloilo Scholastica Academy , Ateneo de Iloilo, Sun Yat Sen, Sagrado de Corazon de Jesue and finally Iloilo Chinese Commercial High School.
Mayor Jerry Trenas has finally institutionalized that the Chinese New Year be celebrated in Iloilo through signing an Executive Order. Both Chinese-Filipinos and Ilonggos can now look forward to colorful Chinese New Year celebration for years to come.
Chinese New year Insights
It was my first time to witness Chinese New Year since I used to think it was an intimate celebration among the Chinese Community. I was wrong, it was a grand celebration that’s open for everyone. The parade starts with the Lion and Dragon dance. Each lion then goes to business establishments to “chai ching”. The lion will get the “Ang pow” hanging on the door or be given by the store owner. Then the students from different chinese schools does a bit of street dancing. Of course the Iloilo Chinese Commercial High School stood out from the parade with their zodiac animals, lion and dragon dance.
After the parade, the invocations and introductions, Mayor Jerry Trenas gave a speech proclaiming that the Chinese New Year will be celebrated in Iloilo for years to come. Of course some presidentiable candidate graced the event and left after what seemed like 40 minutes. Relief washes over me as the “Yellow army” left, giving me enough space to breathe in. I am truly annoyed how they showed up at the event then didn’t even bother to stick around long enough for the program to start. Politics aside, I truly appreciate that the Chinese-Filipinos sharing us a glimpse of their culture. The audience were treated for a night of various chinese cultural dances. Grand fireworks display sponsored by SM Iloilo concludes the Chinese New Year celebration.
For the food festival, I’m a bit concerned that there’s less chinese food selection on display. Its more on barbequed chicken, seafoods and etc. Plus, the food stalls were insanel jam-packed that I end up eating at Mang Inasal near Marymart.
Iloilo Chinese New Year 2010 Videos
Iloilo Chinese New Year 2010 – Lion and Dragon Dance Video
Iloilo Chinese New Year 2010 Parade
More videos to follow, still uploading others
Iloilo Chinese New Year 2010 Photos
Tags: iloilo chinatown, iloilo chinese new year
Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 4:30 pmand is filed under Iloilo Festival and Fiesta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
