Downtown Brooklyn celebrates Lunar New Year with thrilling performances

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership rang in the Lunar New Year at Albee Square on Saturday with music, dragon-themed activities and thrilling, high-energy traditional lion dancing by the Choy Lay Fut Dance Team.  

Celebrating the start of the Year of the Dragon, the captivating performances featured colorful lions dancing and gobbling up heads of lettuce to the driving beat of traditional drums, both on the plaza at City Point and inside DeKalb Market Hall. 

Why lettuce? In Chinese and Cantonese, a word for lettuce (or leafy greens) sounds a lot like a word for becoming wealthy, explains Little Passports. When the lion eats the lettuce and spits it back out at the audience, it symbolizes bringing them a year’s worth of wealth and prosperity.

DBP, City Point and DeKalb Market eateries gave away lucky little red envelopes (also a Chinese tradition) filled with coins, swag and gift certificates for local Asian-owned businesses. 

Kids also enjoyed dragon-themed fun at the mall’s Balloontopia pop-up, a crafts portrait studio and a kids’ drums playspace. 

The event was sponsored by Community Offshore Wind.