Lunar New Year celebrations emphasize joy and community 

It was a raucous and joyful celebration through the streets of Chinatown on Sunday, as hundreds of people from Philly and beyond marked both the first weekend of the Year of the Snake and a victory in their fight to keep the Sixers’ proposed Center City arena from threatening the neighborhood. 

Firecrackers, lion dancing from the Philadelphia Suns, and dancing and singing in the streets punctuated the air for hours. Members of the Suns wore patches honoring member Raymond Ling who passed away in 2023.

Among the performers were the No Arena Flash Choir, with rewritten versions of generations of protest songs from various civil rights movements (now available on a digital album), Chinatown “aunties” doing traditional fan dances, Philly drag performers doing sets to everything from Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” to Disney’s “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” and the PME Drumline and Philly Elmo leading the crowd in doing the Electric Slide and Macarena. 

For siblings Maxwell and Maeve, the trip to Philly from Moorestown, N.J., with mom Meaghan Bertsch to see the lion dance parade was full of fun and paper lion hats, even if the firecrackers got too loud at times. 

PME Drumline’s Tony Royster also made sure to join the festivities with a costume of his own — not a lion, but Elmo. 

“We are a diverse group and we’re better together. We need to work together, to provide backbone and support,” he said of why he wanted to join the celebration and what he looks forward to in 2025. “We are a positive movement. We promote drums for a better community. We want to bring smiles to the hearts of our neighborhoods, and to be role models to others.” 

Councilmember Kendra Brooks joined the block party, as well, stopping at portable tables labeled “History” and “Gratitude” to write a message for the new year that, along with other slips of paper from parade-goers, will be incorporated into a booklet for the new year. 

Brooks, who was one of five council members who opposed the arena legislation, said that the new year will bring continued activism to focus on other ongoing issues in Philadelphia. 

“For me, this was bigger than an arena. It’s about bringing people together across cultures, a fight for all the city’s needs, not just Chinatown, and about what’s best for Market East and the city,” she said. 

What are people looking forward to in the new year? 

“To continue the momentum in the Trump administration,” said Brooks. “To stay connected to community-based organizations across the city. It’s not about neighborhood to neighborhood, but about communities as a whole, so we can build a city of brotherly love and sisterly affection.” 

For West Philly resident Kiera Graham, whose job involves working with small businesses, coming to the Lunar New Year lion dance parade — which stopped and performed in front of numerous local businesses, “eating”/shredding a head of cabbage or lettuce to bring blessings and strength to them — was a way to remind herself of what she wants to fight for in the year ahead. 

“We’re stronger in numbers. It might be a rocky four years, but if we stick together, anything is possible,” Graham said, noting that as a member of the Black, Caribbean and immigrant communities through her father, who immigrated from Jamaica, she is “paying attention to queer rights, trans rights, women’s rights, illnesses going on, and the disability community.” 

“They can’t erase the connections we take for granted,” she said. “We take access for granted as able-bodied people. A moment like this helps us go back to knowing we are all human, and we all want to have a healthy, happy life.” 

Celebrating the past year’s successes while preparing for a new year is important to do together, say community advocates, who echoed Councilmember Brooks in saying Philadelphians need to stick together.

“Here we are, at the end of the year of the dragon, the tail looks back,” said Vivian Chang, executive director of Asian Americans United.

“You see in this celebration, the power and joy in working together. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything quite like this,” said community advocate Debbie Wei. 

“This movement shows what we can’t accept from elected officials … They took a vote on a freaking blank piece of paper. That needs to be horrifying to the whole city. We need to make sure they’re accountable to the city,” Wei said. 

“We were able to train young people and were able to build unity across the city. We are hopefully turning a new page in how this city works. And we are still paying attention to Market East, Northwest Philly, South Philly… and the ink is not even dry on [President Trump’s] executive orders regarding ICE. It’s nonstop attacks, but we know we have support, can organize, and spread community.”