Last weekend, Manchester Local Guides got together to experience and celebrate Chinese New Year right in the centre of Manchester and in Chinatown! We were graced by the presence of @Johnbhewitt , @PeteMHW and newcomers @Maria68 and her husband, Anthony. @Castlefield_David was planning on meeting us at a later time as he had prior engagements but unfortunately, we ended the meetup early due to the cold, cold, cold weather.
It’s always daunting for first-timers to attend a meetup; not sure about what to expect, who the folks will be like or even if it is legit, but I hope that we gave Maria and Anthony a nice warm welcome to the Manchester Local Guides community!
Thanks to a pre-meetup message and my red shoes, Maria and Anthony found me amongst the crowd that was quickly building up at the Central Library, our starting point. The festivities were already in full swing with performances right at the front entrance (lion and cultural dances) and we even had the Chinese Zodiac animals mingling in the crowd and wishing folks a Happy Chinese New Year!
After taking a quick peek in the library, we went to find a spot along the parade route to catch the Dragon Parade. It was rather short but fun nonetheless and it’s nice to see so many folks making the effort to stand out in the cold to watch the parade!
We then walked over to Chinatown to see what was going on there. For Maria, it was a fairly new experience so we were hoping to get the chance to show her around. Unfortunately, it was rather busy with stalls set up along the streets selling food, trinkets and souvenirs, so we couldn’t do much exploration. I did manage to show them a Chinese bakery and the lovely cakes, pastries and biscuits sold there!
Apparently, the Dragon Parade was still going on as we managed to catch it again as it snaked past the busy streets of Chinatown.
With all that excitement and having stood out in the cold for a while now, we decided to find somewhere warm for some food and drinks. We ended up at the Manchester Art Gallery Cafe and luckily managed to grab a table!
On our way out, we caught another Lion Dance performance right inside the Art Gallery!
With daylight quickly disappearing and the thought of standing out in the cold for another 2 hours before we could watch the fireworks, we decided that it was probably for the best to just call it a day. Note to self: standing around in the same spot quickly becomes very tiring and tedious, even with good company!
For more photos and videos, do check out the group album here.
So, we didn’t get to do everything that we planned to do but it was a fun meetup nonetheless and it was great to have new folks attending and getting to know them! We’re always on the lookout for Local Guides, so If you’re from the Greater Manchester area or near enough to travel to us, do get in touch! We always aim to have a meetup each month and we are in the midst of planning an exciting meetup soon!
Did you celebrate Chinese New Year? What did you and how did it go?! Share your experience in a post or in the comments below and use the #CNYInMyCity tag! Thanks to @MariaNgo for this fun initiative!
#MCRLocalGuides
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