Celebrate Chinese New Year in style in Southend High Street, as it comes alive with traditional food, music, and performances ending with a fantastic parade!
Culturally, Chinese New Year is a holiday of great significance. It is full of tradition, mythology, and symbolism. For the local Chinese community, it is a chance to indulge in pride and celebration of Chinese culture.
Traditionally, it is thought that the celebration of Chinese New Year brings good luck and fortune to those that celebrate it and as Southend enters its first official year as a City, it seems only fit that we celebrate and bring blessings to the High Street!
Traders
Food is extremely significant in the Chinese culture. Not only do certain foods have symbolic representation but the sharing and eating of food is how Chinese people share love and quality time during Chinese New Year.
For this reason, we hope to bring this element of Chinese New Year to our event by hosting a handful of Chinese food stalls in the high street, sharing culture in celebration with Southend.
They will be selling familiar street foods such as spring rolls, prawn crackers and fortune cookies!
Street Performance
Bringing excitement and entertainment to the High Street, we have three performing companies putting on various traditional Chinese performances.
Calmer Karma
Calmer Karma are a boutique corporate entertainment agency with over 20 years proven experience of delivering first class entertainment.
Stilt and Dragon
Stilt walkers
Our Chinese themed stilt walkers evoke the feeling of the orient with their bright red silks and shimmering golds; recreating a vision of a Chinese Princess these are stunningly costumed performers Towering above and larger than life stilt walkers are a Chinese themed event statement.
Dragon Dancers
Chinese dragons are a symbol of China’s culture, and they are believed to bring good luck to people, therefore the longer the dragon in the dance, the more luck it will bring to the community. The movements in a performance traditionally symbolize historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity.
Jiang Li
Ribbon dancers, Chinese Musician and Chinese traditional Singing. Originally performed for Chinese royalty, the ancient art of Chinese Ribbon dancing involves using a ribbon and elegant movements to create a beautiful visual dance. Traditional Chinese singing and music comes in many styles. Unlike western music it is melodic rather than harmonic and has a tradition dating back thousands of years.
Kudos Combat Martial Arts Demonstration and Lion Dance
Kudos is a full-time fully equipped studio (established 2005) providing highest quality of Martial Arts training based in Benfleet Essex. Our instructors hold national and international recognition, bringing to you the opportunity to train with some of the world’s leading masters of the arts.
Martial Arts
Specialising in various Martial Art styles, Kudos will use their expertise make an exciting demonstration of skill, discipline, and strength. Part of Military training in Ancient China, Martial arts develop temperament and philosophy as well as providing entertainment to on-lookers.
Lion Dance
Using large puppet like costumes the Lion dance is the perhaps the most famous iconography associated with Chinese New Year. Thought to evoke good luck and blessings, the Lion Dance is also associated with the ancient mythology of the beast Nian. Requiring incredibly strength and skill the costume seemingly takes on a life of it’s own as it playfully taunts on-lookers.
Workshops
Calmer Karma
Calmer Karma will be hosting two-hour long workshops during the day in the Ancient Chinese Arts, such as calligraphy and paper-folding. Enjoyable for adults and children alike.
Kiwi Productions
Kiwi productions will host two half an hour-long workshop. Using creativity with arts and craft, groups will be making masks and drums to join in with the parade!
Parade
At 3:30pm, the Dragon, Lions, Dancers and Martial artists will lead a procession down the high street. Local adults and Children with their homemade drums will be encouraged to join in and bring blessings to the high street for the New Year.
This project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund
