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The Principality as Focal Centre of Chinese New Year Celebrates the Holiday with Style
Chinese New Year is celebrated by more than 20 % of the world, and is the most important holiday in China and Monaco has been chosen to be a focal point of the festivities.
We are moving from the Year of the Tiger to the Year of the Rabbit, a water rabbit that brings longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese Culture, which sets up 2023 as the year of hope.
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The calm Water Rabbit of 2023 is particularly associated with water helping trees to grow fitting perfectly with Monaco’s love for the environment.
New Year is clearly the most important event in the Chinese calendar marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season. The New Year always falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. To celebrate it in the Principality, the impressive gala dinner at the Hermitage Belle Époque Salon on 24th January was organised by Monaco Dragon Prestige and the Monaco-China Association and opened with a speech by the Her Excellency Ambassador of Monaco to China, Marie-Pascale Boisson.
It never disappoints, the Dragon Dance, so colourful, so uniquely performed at the Hermitage and the dragon so so long. Did you know that means lots and lots of luck. The dance is an intricate motion that requires synchronized movements by the puppeteers with poles beneath the undulating body of the fearsome beast — a beast though that has a benevolent disposition. Great power, dignity, fertility and wisdom that’s what we wish for in 2023. Monaco’s Chinese Festival dragon at the Hermitage bestows it on us with style.
The Dragon Dance had plenty of competition at the Hermitage with the dance show performed by the 1920’s style dancers in their shimmering outfits who danced like birds — gracefully and seductively flapping red fans like wings. It all brought back the 20s craze with dancers called flappers except in the middle of the dance trio the dancer managed to pull off some extraordinarily tricky acrobatic gymnastic moves balanced on a discreetly placed apparatus …exquisite!
It’s not an exaggeration to say the festive meal prepared especially for this unique evening by renowned chefs was amazing. Traditional dishes are a must at Chinese New Year namely dishes with fish symbolizing “abundance”, as well as noodles symbolizing “longevity”, reimagined by renowned SBM chefs in a gastronomic Mediterranean meal with Asian flavours. And a special part of the evening was the Fashion show — AMC Haute Couture Monaco.
The whole festive evening was enjoyed by the numerous guests from the Principality’s and European and International political, economic and cultural spheres including representatives of the Chinese community from European countries who were delighted that Monaco had been chosen as a focal point of the celebrations.