LunarFest Vancouver celebrates the Year of the Ox with a special focus on family

Festival wishes an Ox-picious year for everyone through diverse programming

POST SPONSORED BY lunarfest vancouver

Xiahai City God Temple.

The Year of the Ox is officially here, and LunarFest Vancouver is celebrating all month long.

Produced by Asian-Canadian Special Events Association, LunarFest has several inclusive events throughout February that are all centred on a very special and important theme: family.

Michael J. Fox once said “Family is not an important thing, it’s everything!” After a very challenging 2020 for many families around the world, LunarFest Vancouver aims to ring in an auspicious year for all people. Beyond our immediate families, our communities or nations are also like family.

Family Dinners is a video series that features local families sharing their culinary histories and stories. Among the participants is Julienne Nieh, Miss Chinese Vancouver runner-up. LunarFest Vancouver invites people to share their own family dinners virtually so we can get a taste of cultures and how other people celebrate their New Year traditions.

In addition to seeing dinners from local cultural communities, LunarFest has partnered with the Story House in Taiwan in the Melting Pot, I Think Not program, which features a gathering of cultures through hot pot dishes. Taking advantage of Taiwan’s excellent management of the COVID-19 pandemic, LunarFest managing director Charlie Wu and artistic director Jessica Sung went to Taiwan to film this special project that features newcomers from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia sharing their hot pot traditions.

Taiwan’s cultural diversity reflects Canada’s multiculturalism, and this openness is apparent in other LunarFest programming. Storytelling and music play an important part of Lunar New Year traditions. LunarFest’s Family Stories features tales from Slovakia, Mauritius, Mongolia, and Vietnam as ways to expand our horizons in the face of physical distancing.

The Family Portraits is an online gallery of pictures, paintings, and artworks about the people closest to us by artists whose stories will bring warmth, smiles, and laughs. 

Inspired by the knowledge that humanity connects us all, Whispers of the Soul is a commissioned contemporary ballet performance by choreographer Justine Fraser of Reforming Art Productions. The virtual presentation in collaboration with Coastal City Ballet has its world premiere on February 22. It tells the story about a young girl who goes on a magical adventure, learning both the importance of respecting values and honouring all communities.

Lunar New Year celebrations would be incomplete without getting a reading for the future and owning a commemorative hand-held lantern.

In partnership with the Society of We Are Canadians Too, LunarFest will present the commemorative Ox-picious lanterns blessed by City God in Taipei.

Coastal Lunar Lanterns will be showcased at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square (formerly Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza). (Please see the The Lantern City website for updates on the location of the six lanterns that are part of We Are a Family.)

Other LunarFest Vancouver activities include crafts, lifestyle events, and more. For full details, visit LunarFest Vancouver.

This post was sponsored by LunarFest Vancouver.