China Town celebrates the year of Pig

Kolkata, Feb 19: China Town, in this City of Joy, today wore a festive look to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

According to the Chinese Almanac, this the 4704th year of 'Pig'.

It is not only the Chinese people in Kolkata but they come from all over India here to celebrate this much awaited annual festival.

But the traditional charm seemed to fade day by day as a few people of the community are left in the city.

An 80-year-old Chen recalls, ''China Town here used to be littered with the remnants of crackers. Dragon parades and lion dances perfomed by the boys and girls were a treat to the eyes. The festival is now fading.'' Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern parades.

''Every year, we celebrate this way. In the morning we say prayers in the Buddha temple, then we visit all the Chinese houses with dragons and beat drums, tong-tongs, Cha-cha and collect the money hung from a string topped with a lettuce leaf.'' said 11-year-old Steven, a christian, who also takes part in the festival.

''The dragons are considered lucky,'' he adds while busy beating the drum.

''There are five different clans of dragon parades like Little dragon, Victory, Famulan (only for girls with pink dragons), Shining star etc and we all participate in the parade with our chinese freinds,'' said Ahmed Rafiq, a student of class seven.

''It is a great fun, we girls come out with this pink dragon. We wear our traditional Cheongsam or Qipao. I love the way it is wore,'' 18-year-old Tse Mao said while dancing in the parade.

Lee Kim, a dentist, whose ancestors were from Beijing, said the celebration here has a mixed effect. '' I have a faint memory of the custom my grandparents used to celebrate. Many of the customs are no longer followed, '' Kim added.

''I love the colourful extravaganza and the parades. We dont have such celebrations. It excites me,'' Arun Pandey, who had also participated in the parade, dressed as a dragon, said adding, ''I love Chinese food and the people.'' The Chinese consider themselves as descendants of Dragon, that symbolises power, fertility and goodness.

''This is the only day we all meet, otherwise every one is very busy. We also get to know about our culture,'' says Chung Su, a shoe maker.

Many of the Chinese, who came to this city, had taken up trades like food, dentistry, leather, shoe, beauty and carpentry.

But the celebrations are not just about the dragon and the lion dances. There is also a Kung Fu and a few traditional songs and dance routine, adds Su.

The Chinese aknowledge the presence of their ancestors on this day with a community dinner with some traditional dishes like Tofu, Dimshums and noodles surrounding the oven or 'weilu'.

Once a thriving community, the population has plummeted to a mere 5000 from about 3,50,000 in 1962.

Despite being thousand of miles away from China, Tangra, the Walled city in the city's eastern fringe has preserved its identity, Tangra has its own Chinese schools and a temple dedicated to ancient Chinese heroes.

UNI