Featured performances in Terminal 2: 🐉 West Coast Lion Dance Company on Feb. 6 from 3:30 – 6:30 PM and Feb. 7 from 3 – 4:30 PM 🐍 Leung's White Crane Dragon and Lion Dance on Feb. 13 & 14 from 10 AM – 12 PM pic.twitter.com/MsROaB1In2
— San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ✈️ (@flySFO) January 29, 2025
A handful of airports have book exchange corners. But Chattanooga Airport has the “Skylib” – a little shop filled with new and used books with payment on the honor system. Sales benefit the Chattanooga Public Library.
January 22 is the beginning of the Lunar New Year 2023, which kicks off the Year of the Rabbit.
Here’s how some airports and airlines around the world marked the day.
Gung Hay Fat Choy from Worcester Regional Airport! Thank you to the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Mass and Eternals Lion Dance for celebrating the Year of the Rabbit with us. pic.twitter.com/8r1OIsIxF6
Passengers across the airport enjoyed performances from Mak Fai Kung Fu Dragon and Lion Dance Association and were surprised with red envelopes, a tradition to symbolize good luck and prosperity. #LunarNewYearpic.twitter.com/NrzAYG50xo
Happy Chinese New Year from all of us at Changi! Here’s wishing you & your loved ones a year of good health, happiness, and more travels to come 🤩 pic.twitter.com/c9XV4TtZ4B
#LionDancers entertained passengers, families & staff at Nadi International Airport today as we celebrate the #ChineseNewYear2023 – the Year of the Rabbit! A first for the airport, passengers checking in at Departures paused to enjoy the entertainment! 🇨🇳🇫🇯 pic.twitter.com/dOAcdBXkty
Happy #LunarNewYear! 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit — a kind, energetic, and resilient animal that represents patience and treating others with respect. 🐇
The lions came to ‘bai nian’ at KLIA today! Their acrobatic moves wowed all of us! We also had the cute God of Prosperity meeting the airport community and passengers for good luck and wealth! Happy ‘Chor 3’ to everyone celebrating. Have a safe journey! 😍 #MYairportssharespic.twitter.com/l1JwerANlQ
Here’s a sampling of Lunar New Year messages for the Year of the Tiger from airports around the world.
If we missed yours, please send it along.
(Up next: Airports mark Black History Month)
Lions 🦁 and tigers 🐅 and dragons 🐉 at SFO to celebrate Lunar New Year. Happy New Year! pic.twitter.com/99xu1aQpsz
— San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ✈️ (@flySFO) February 3, 2022
Gong hei fat choy! To celebrate the Year of the Tiger, travelers were treated to a traditional lion blessing earlier today. The #LunarNewYear festivities were hosted by airport partner, Hospitality Culinaire, operator of our LAS @JambaJuice locations. 🐅🥁 pic.twitter.com/e5yn47vMUm
— Harry Reid International Airport (@LASairport) February 3, 2022
#BCIA wishes you a happy Chinese New Year! Embrace the new and let go of the old and you will find a better version of yourself! Is there anything you wish for in the new year?#HappyChineseNewYearpic.twitter.com/hQ22gEtDfX
— Beijing Capital International Airport (@PEKAirport) February 1, 2022
It’s the Year of the Tiger! Today marks the #LunarNewYear, a festival that’s celebrated across Asia and by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. This time-honored tradition dates back thousands of years. May it be a year of good luck and good fortune! 🧧🎇🐅 pic.twitter.com/qVU2TeSFTs
Happy Lunar New Year from YVR! If you celebrate this day, we wish you the best luck, health, prosperity and of course, safe travels this year. pic.twitter.com/kRBPJp5tZX
In 2020 the Chinese New Year – also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival – falls on Saturday, January 25 and will be followed by 15 days of celebrations marking the transition from the Year of the Pig to the Year of the Rat.
While
this is a major family-oriented holiday for many Asian communities, all are
welcome at the colorful parades, festive pageants and impressive fireworks
displays that will take place in Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco, Las
Vegas, New York and many other cities.
Hotels,
restaurants, museums and other venues will be offering special packages and
events as well to welcome travelers and “consumers
who are increasingly embracing their own and others’ multi-cultural
backgrounds,” said Joy Lu, assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon
University’s Tepper School of Business.
Here’s a sampling of celebrations we gathered first for CNBC.
Lunar New Year in New York City
Lunar New Year, Chinatown, NYC. Walter Wlodarczyk _NYC & Company
Many Chinatown neighborhoods
throughout New York City will host Lunar New
Year events, but two of the key celebrations are the Firecracker Ceremony
and Cultural Festival on January 25 and the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade &
Festival in Lower Manhattan on February 9.
The Mandarin Oriental, New York is
offering a Celebrate Chinese New Year package from January 24-February 9, 2020 that includes
daily breakfast for two, $50 dining or spa credit and other perks. Rates start
at $745/night. The hotel will host a traditional Lion Dance in the lobby at
noon on January 24(complimentary) and a special cocktail called The
Jade Rat ($24) will be on the menu throughout the month in the Aviary NYC bar.
Celebrate in San Francisco or Oakland
Dragon mural sketch – Artist David Cho, The Dragon School affiliate
In San Francisco, which boasts the largest Chinatown outside
of Asia, the Chinese New Year Parade
dates back to the 1860s. This year’s parade takes place Saturday, February 8
with elaborate floats and costumes, lion dancers and a 288-foot-long Golden
Dragon carried by a team of 180 people.
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, located near
Chinatown, will offer a special Chinese Afternoon Tea ($80) on Sunday, January
26 and a Lunar New Year Tasting Menu ($155/per person) on January 31 and
February 1, 7 and 8. On January 20, artists from Oakland’s Dragon School will begin painting a dragon-inspired
mural across multiple interior and exterior hotel walls.
And the Oakland Museum of California will hold its annual Lunar New Year Celebration on Saturday and Sunday, February 8 and 9. The event is free with museum admission and includes live cultural performances, demonstrations, hands-on activities, food, traditional and contemporary music and dance, a petting zoo and more.
Lucky Lunar New Year in Las Vegas
Courtesy Las Vegas News Bureau
As is their tradition, many Las Vegas venues commemorate the Chinese New Year in an over-the-top way, with decadent culinary offerings, impressive décor and lots of live entertainment.
The Las Vegas
Spring Festival Parade takes place on January 25 in downtown Las Vegas as part
of the Chinese New Year in the Desert festivities, with elaborate floats and
costumes and dragons.
The Forum Shops inside Caesars Palace will welcome
back the 22-foot-long celebratory, good-luck dragon adorned with 30,000
flickering red and amber LED lights.
From January 11 to March 7, the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens will
honor the Year of the Rat with elaborate creations made from flowers, seeds,
silks and plants. In addition to a gilded gold rat sitting on gold ingot bowls,
the gardens will feature four other golden rats bringing more ingot bowls up a
gold staircase, as well as two 20-foot gold coin trees.
And starting
January 15, the waterfall atrium between The Venetian and The Palazzo will sport
a 2,000-pound, 18-foot tall golden
rodent sculpture surrounded by a garden filled with red and orange bromeliads,
golden yellow chrysanthemums and red and yellow orchids.
Celebrate Lunar New Year in Rhode Island. Or Dallas
Courtesy Castle Hill Inn
Castle Hill Inn, a Relais & Châteaux property in
Rhode Island, is offering a two-night Chinese New Year Travel Package January 24 through February 2 that
includes a special Cantonese-inspired Chinese New Year dinner for
two, a Chinese-inspired welcome amenity, gourmet breakfast and
afternoon tea. Rates start at $525+/night mid-week and $595+/night weekend, based on a two-night
stay.
And why not celebrate the Chinese New Year
with skating and shopping?
From January 14 through February 8, look for a
striking display of more than 250 giant red lanterns hanging over the
ice-skating rink at the Galleria Dallas mall in Texas, which has the Westin Galleria Dallas on-site.
Chinese New Year in London, Hong Kong or Singapore
A wide variety of Chinese New Year events and festivals
will take place in Singapore, including the Mardi
Gras-inspired Chingay Parade, January 31 to February 1, with fireworks,
firecrackers, laser lights, pyrotechnics and performances.
And if you do make it to Singapore to welcome the Year of
the Rat, Stephen Scott,
Luxury Travel Advisor at Protravel International, recommends dinner at the iconic Fullerton Hotel
Singapore. In addition to a wide variety
of Chinese New Year feasts being offered now through February 8, the hotel’s
Jade Restaurant is serving a special edition Gold Rush Salmon Yu Sheng adorned
with an image of a rat and a traditional gold coin made from white, green and
pink radish strips. The dish must be ordered three days in advance and costs
about $287.