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Kung Hei Fat Choi, Happy New Year.

Year of the Pig 2007.

Miss Piggy
how delicious!

Chinese New Year celebrations continue to grow and are now one of the biggest events in London.The parade went from the Strand, bypassing Trafalgar Square and up the Charing Cross road to Shaftesbury Avenue, completing the the parade at Rupert street. If that was stretching it a bit, then it also opens up possibilities for the future and the development of a large parade that would include a more diverse range of chinese cultural groups, and are there not quite a few in London and the UK.Everyone in the parade would not have to play on stage.
Trafalgar Square, what a venue for a major event, it has seen the biggest and the best, so playing live on stage at the square is surely a must and the chinese new year went like firecrackers leaving everyone with a feeling of 'that was fun, see you all next year'. The dragons now dance on stage, after their eyes have been dotted.
For me the interest lies in seeing the groups from mainland China: Two provinces were represented; Guizhou and Jiangxi, both were dance troups and presented stunning choreography.
The emotional part of the event was the second recital by Ms Laure Chan playing violin (was it Stradivarius) in the hands of a maestro who could tell, in the rendition of an eleven year old girl, Stradivarius would have been impressed, what a recital, wonderful!
Afternoon fireworks at Leicester Square saw a huge crowd, with people hanging out of every window and crowds pressed back into side streets.The action on stage at Trafalgar Square completed the minute that the five oclock set began and from the square they were clearly visible, flash bangs zig zagging across the sky over Leicester Square.
A new and improved one way system was in operation surrounding China town, no one mentioned that to the lion dancers who continue to attract a huge crowd to every lettuce that they 'delicately' consumed as they shuffled to driven beat from door to door, whilst the crowd heaved this way for the dragon on the left and that way for the dragon to the right, leaving 'piggy in the middle' to be squeezed most wretchedly the whole while.
It may be difficult to tear ones self away from the action on the stage but, it only represents part of the fun and there were events occurring all around China town and that made it an adventure fun day for families and friends.