Lunar New Year in Washington DC

The Lunar New Year's here and communities across the globe came together to celebrate. Parades were cancelled for the last three years because of Covid.

Wallace Lee helps organise the parade in Washington DC.

Wallace Lee: "So, this is our first year back. So we're pretty happy about that. Don't have as many groups, we still have 40 groups which is pretty large. Back before Covid, we had at least 60, I think close to 60 groups I think at one point."

The annual parade included cultural items like dragons, firecrackers, traditional dances and martial arts. But for many people, like Justin Chuang, it was the opportunity to get together that was important.

Justin Chuang: "So I, I grew up in Southern California, so I'm expecting a lot of stuff that would happen around me when I was a kid, right? Good food, seeing a lot of my community members especially, right? It's kind of like my family, a little bit."

New Year is China's most important holiday, with people travelling to see family, but an increase in Covid cases has caused less public celebration. Many people chose to spend time indoors with their family.

In the US, celebrating as a community was also the main aim. The Asian community was blamed for Covid 19 by some people, which has resulted in an increase in attacks on Asians.

Mayor of Washington DC Muriel Bowser criticised this.

Muriel Bowser: "It is important for us to not only celebrate where we are, to look back over the last couple of years and congratulate ourselves for our resilience, for sticking with our neighbours, for standing up against Asian hate anywhere we see it, anywhere we hear it, any place in the world."

It's the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese horoscope system, which is a sign of a peaceful and gentle year of deep thought. But for the moment, it's all about the celebrations.

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