Lunar New Year at Chinese Canadian Museum
byThe Chinese Canadian Museum is celebrating its first Lunar New Year February 10-11 with special tea tastings, craft workshops, lion dances, added guided tours, and Chinese calligraphy demonstrations.
Lunar New Year at Chinese Canadian Museum
- Date: February 10 and 11, 2024
- Location: Chinese Canadian Museum (51 E Pender St, Vancouver)
- Admission: Tickets available for purchase online
Lunar New Year — also called Spring Festival in some parts of the world — falls on February 10 this year, set to commence the Year of the Wood Dragon.
Saturday, February 10, 2024: master Chinese calligrapher Wai Yin Lau will host calligraphy demonstrations from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Visitors will be able to take home an auspicious Chinese calligraphy greeting to bring in good fortune for the year.
Sunday, February 11, 2024: Chinese Canadian artist Marlene Yuen, whose mural is featured inside the museum’s introductory gallery, will host special Year of the Wood Dragon printmaking sessions from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Visitors will use various relief plate templates to ink, print, and string their own decorative Lunar New Year bunting.
On both days, join in free tea tastings specially curated from Chinatown tea shops, along with snacks and treats. Guided tours of the museum are available every hour from 11:00am to 3:00pm on February 10, and from 1:00pm to 3:00pm on February 11 (which will be held in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin).
Museum staff will be marching in the Vancouver Chinatown Lunar New Year parade on February 11 with hand-stitched and embroidered Chinese Canadian Museum flags and banners, specially designed by Chinese and Quebecois Canadian graphic design firm Studio Pianpian He and Max Harvey, based in Montreal.
Golden Tickets & Red Envelopes
With your admission from January 24 to February 11, visitors will receive a fortune cookie with the chance to find a golden fortune paper inside. Winners can then be entered into a guaranteed prize draw, which includes a trip for two from Rocky Mountaineer; a roundtrip Helijet flight to Victoria with a stay at the Grand Pacific Hotel; gift cards to Kissa Tanto and Bao Bei; two press box seats to a Vancouver Canucks game; a private group ceramics workshop in Chinatown, and more.
The museum has also commissioned Vancouver graphic artist Melanie Choi to design custom red pocket envelopes, with packs available for sale at their gift kiosk. All visitors who buy an annual pass from January 31 to February 11 will also receive one free red pocket. It is Chinese tradition to give out red envelopes (known as 紅包, hóngbāo) filled with money as a symbol and gesture of good luck and prosperity, and to ward off evil spirits.
The Chinese Canadian Museum opened July 1, 2023. It is Canada’s first museum recognizing past, present, and future contributions and stories of Chinese Canadians towards the growth and success of BC and Canada.
