From Saturday onwards the Portuguese capital will come alive with oriental parades and shows to be staged on main avenues, gardens and squares.
Speaking at a ceremony held on Monday afternoon to unveil the programme, Choi Man Hin, president of the Luso-Chinese Association of Commerce and Industry, said the celebrations “make the Chinese community feel at home in Portugal, and also gives the Portuguese people the opportunity to appreciate the culture and customs of the Chinese people without leaving Portugal.”
Mr. Hin said this year’s festivities will be “even bigger, richer and involve an even greater number of participants” than before.
Among them will be two groups who have travelled to Portugal purposely from China, the Huajin Dance Company and the Chongqing Performing Art Group.
Included in the performances will be the traditional Dance of the Dragon, an exchanging of masks and acrobatics, which will take place along Avenida Almirante Reis, from 11am on Saturday, starting at the Anjos church and ending at the Martim Moniz square.
On Sunday a show will be staged between 3pm and 4.30pm in the Estrela Garden.
“We want to share this celebration with Portuguese society, with the Portuguese people, a people that treats our community in Portugal very well” said Shu Jianping, Cultural Councillor of the Chinese Embassy, who added that there are about 20,000 Chinese living in Portugal and that about half of the Chinese community is concentrated in the metropolitan area of Lisbon.
Lisbon council’s Councillor for International Relations, Carlos Castro, said that in his view celebrating the Chinese New Year is “already an integral part of the very identity of the city.”
He reflected that, “as the years go by, the party gets bigger and inclusion will grow”, and explained that the lion’s share of investment in the celebrations will be footed by the Chinese community in Portugal, supported by the Embassy of China.
Lisbon’s Oriente Museum will be hosting a range of activities relating to the Year of the Monkey, dedicated to Chinese culture and tradition, between 7 and 21 February.
The Chinese New Year starts on 8 February and succeeds the Year of the Goat.
The cities of Portimão (Algarve), Póvoa de Varzim and Vila Nova de Gaia (northern Portugal) will also be staging events to mark the occasion.