Chinese New Year to Begin in Bangor

Tomorrow, Feburary 19th, is the first day of the Chinese New Year and Bangor is celebrating! It's time to welcome the year of The Goat and for the second year Chinese New Year parade and festivities, sponsored by the Maine China Network, to the Bangor Mall.

This time of year is usually celebrated by family dinners, entertaining guests and ridding yourself and home of negative energies from the past year. With more than 400 Asian students in the greater Bangor area the Chinese New Year has been more important to represent in the past few years. Some of the students will participate in the parade which will include the Lion Dance and the Dragon Dance. The parade, which starts at 3:30 outside JC Penny, will also include a panda, colorful costumes and even a live animal!

This is a great opportunity for multi-cultural families to celebrate together and last year around 100 of these families came from the greater Bangor area last year. The grand marshal this year is John Nicolai, captain of the Bar Harbor lobster tour and demonstration boat the Lulu. The Chinese New Year lasts about 15 days and Oriental Jade will be serving their New Years buffet for the first 3 days of the holiday.

Registration to march in the parade is 2:45-3:15. Opening speech at 3:25 with parade beginning shortly after. Red is the color of the Chinese New Year, so if your are going to attend, wear red!