New Fire Dragon Festival comes to Vancouver’s Chinatown, September 24 to 26
The art-filled event coincides with Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations
Photo via Fire Dragon Festival
The Fire Dragon Festival takes place in Vancouver’s Chinatown September 24 to 26.
THE FIRE DRAGON is making a comeback.
The legend of the spiritual creature representing good fortune goes back about 140 years to a small village in Hong Kong that was struck by a typhoon, suffered a python attack, and then hit by a plague. An elder had a dream in which the Buddha told him that the only way to put an end to so much misfortune was to build a dragon made of straw and hay, fill it with incense sticks, and dance throughout the village for three days and three nights.
The strategy worked, and the ritual has been kept alive ever since.
Vancouver’s Chinatown community built its first Fire Dragon in 1975. It hasn’t appeared since, until now.
Presented by the City of Vancouver’s Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group’s Culture and Heritage working group—in collaboration with the Vancouver Chinatown BIA Society (VCBIA), Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the Chinese Cultural Centre and Chinatown Society Heritage Building Association—the inaugural Fire Dragon Festival is about good luck, prosperity, and harmony.
Among the highlights are art installations, dance workshops, mid-autumn crafts such as lantern making, mooncake-making demos, moon gazing, tea ceremony, Chinese opera, storytelling, mahjong and other Chinese games, and more.
The awakening of the Fire Dragon takes place the evening of September 25, when people are invited to insert lit incense into the dragon to bring good fortune.
A fest within a fest, the Noodlecious Festival aims to highlight quintessential Chinese noodle dishes and the cultural diversity in the neighbourhood by participating Chinatown restaurants.
The Culture and Heritage working group works with the City of Vancouver’s Chinatown Transformation Team to conserve and promote Chinatown’s cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible.
For more information, visit www.firedragonfestival.com.
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