CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Year of the Dragon is here, and Chicago’s Asian American communities are preparing for a big weekend of Lunar New Year celebrations.
In Chinatown, ahead of the neighborhood’s Lunar New Year parade, shop owners like Julie Lam have been stocking up.
“Zodiac-wise, the dragon is the most popular one, so we’re well stocked,” she said.
On Monday, Lam’s shop was filled with ornate dragon statues; wearable, kid-sized dragon heads; and red dragons meant to hang from the walls, ceilings, doors — anywhere that could fit a dragon.
Lam runs several gift shops in Chinatown, which are appropriately named the Asian Image. Just about everything needed to start the Lunar New Year on the right foot can be found at her shops and at many others like it, including red envelopes by the box.
“We put money in them, and usually we give them to children,” she said. “It’s for good luck to bring in the new year.”
Farther north, preparations for another Lunar New Year parade are underway in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, where local Chinese American leaders planted roots about 40 years ago.
“It kind of just expanded and grew to include southeast Asian people especially after the Vietnam War,” said Hac Tran, with the Uptown Chamber of Commerce. “People from Cambodia, Laos [and] Vietnam brought their own kind of customs here as well.”
Tran told WBBM that many of these separate cultures have a long history of celebrating the Lunar New Year — and they’ve incorporated many of the traditions that originated in China. For the Year of the Dragon, he said Uptown’s community leaders are hopeful that it will bring them toward prosperity in this new year.
“It represents and symbolizes this sort of strength, vigor,” said Tran. “That, for us this year in Argyle, is very important because of all the challenges we’ve faced in the past five, 10 years.”
In some southeast Asian cultures, such as Thai, they celebrate their own traditional new year in April. But Tran, speaking for the Vietnamese diaspora, said events such as the Lunar New Year Parade are important to “honor the cultural histories and legacies of this area.”
“You see the live dancers go around each business and do that performance,” Tran said. “It’s really reflective in its symbolism of success, business-wise. You’re wishing, ‘In this next year, I hope I do really good business and succeed.’”
Uptown’s Argyle Lunar New Year Celebration will kick off Saturday at 10 a.m. It will start on Argyle Street at Winthrop Avenue and will circle around to end at Argyle Street and Sheridan Road. Find more information here.
The Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday and run along Wentworth Avenue from 24th Street to Cermak Road. More information can be found here.
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