How to ring in the Lunar New Year in Dallas-Fort Worth

On Jan. 29, the Year of the Snake will begin as millions of people around the world celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year in accordance with the Chinese lunar calendar. The holiday kicks off the 15-day Spring Festival and welcomes prosperity, good fortune and family reunions.

“This is the most important holiday in China,” says Yifeng Ren. Ren, 67, was born in China and recently moved to Plano. “No matter which place you work, you have to come back to your hometown to be with your parents [and] family members to celebrate.”

Lunar New Year is celebrated in China and in other Asian countries including Mongolia, Vietnam, and North and South Korea. In one of the world’s largest annual migrations, millions of observers travel to be with family for the holiday. Reuters reported that a record 9 billion trips are expected in China this year during the travel season around the festival.

Related:Welcome the Year of the Snake with these Lunar New Year’s celebrations around North Texas

The significance of the holiday is similar to the importance of Thanksgiving and Christmas in America, Ren says. She plans to host nearly 30 people to celebrate in Plano this year.

Revelers celebrate with fireworks, families eat fish for prosperity, and relatives give money and wish for abundance, wealth and good fortune. A television show broadcast in China and around the globe on the eve of the holiday is considered one of the most-watched programs in the world. The color red, rounded shapes and lanterns are all important symbols for the holiday.

The lunar calendar has 12 animals, and this year marks the Year of the Snake. Events around Dallas-Fort Worth will ring in the new year and mark the transition between winter and spring.

Plano invites the community to celebrate the Year of the Snake at its Lunar New Year festival on the last weekend of January. The outdoor event will take place on Jan. 25 at McCall Plaza.

Michelle Hawkins, the downtown manager for Plano, helped plan the event. The festival will include a lion dance performance, Chinese calligraphy demonstrations, a DJ, a face painter and temporary tattoos, she says.

A photo opportunity at the plaza will be up for several weeks, Hawkins says. Angel Touch Kitchen will serve halal Indonesian food.

“Going to different cultural events is just always exciting to me to see how other people celebrate and [to] celebrate with other communities,” Hawkins says. “It’s just so eye-opening, because I think that some of our traditions here get watered down. To see such strong traditional ties is always fun.”

This is the city’s first Lunar New Year festival, Hawkins says. The event was planned for last year, too, but was rained out.

Details: Jan. 25 from noon to 4 p.m. at McCall Plaza, 998 E. 15th St., in downtown Plano. Free.

Here are other ways to celebrate the holiday around Dallas-Fort Worth.

• Celebrate lunar New Year at the Kimbell, Jan. 24 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth. Free.
• Frisco Lunar New Year Festival, Feb. 8 from 3 to 8 p.m. at Simpson Plaza, 6101 Frisco Square Blvd., Frisco. Free.
• Galleria Dallas Lantern Festival, nearly 250 Chinese lanterns are on display over the ice rink through Feb. 17. Author Isabelle Engler will share music and stories on Feb. 6 at 10:30 a.m. on Level Three near the Children’s Play Place. A lion dance will be Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. on Level One near Sephora. Through Feb. 17 at Galleria Dallas, 13350 Dallas Parkway, Dallas. Free.
• Lunar New Year festival, Feb. 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DFW Chinatown, 400 N. Greenville Ave., Richardson. Free.
• Lunar New Year Celebration, Jan. 25 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at NorthPark Center, 8687 N. Central Expressway, Dallas. Free.
• Lunar New Year Festival: Year of the Snake, Feb. 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Grandscape, 5752 Grandscape Blvd., The Colony. Free.
• Lunar New Year Celebration, Feb. 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Carrollton Town Center, 2540 Old Denton Road, Carrollton. Free.
• Southlake Spring Festival, Feb. 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Southlake Town Square, 1400 Main St., Southlake. Free.
• 18th annual Lunar New Year, Year of the Wood Snake, Jan. 17-19, Jan. 24-26 and Feb. 1-2 at Asia Times Square, 2625 W. Pioneer Parkway, Grand Prairie. Free.
• 2025 Asian Lunar New Year Art Festival, Feb. 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the University of Texas at Dallas Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building, 800 W. Campbell Road, Richardson. Free.

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