Thousands braved the cold Saturday evening at Stone Mountain to ring in the Lunar New Year with dragon dance performances, Asian food trucks and an educational drone and light show.
Hundreds of lanterns and lights hanging overhead lit the base of Stone Mountain as kids raced through the main entrance and families took photos in front of the shimmering lights. A Happy Lunar New Year sign in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese greeted visitors as they walked toward the festivities, which included calligraphy, paper cutting and lantern-making stations as well as a small collection of food trucks selling skewers, banh mi and pho.
It’s the third annual Lunar New Year Festival at Stone Mountain hosted in partnership with the Chinese Cultural School of Atlanta, an organization that teaches and promotes the Chinese language and culture. An anticipated 40,000 to 50,000 visitors will attend the festival over the course of three weekends, said Stan Morrell, Stone Mountain Park senior vice president of entertainment and special events.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, who was in attendance, preached the importance of recognizing DeKalb County’s diverse community and its 47,000 Asian American residents.
“For me, this is important because we often talk about diversity, but this gives people the opportunity to experience diversity,” Cochran-Johnson said in an interview. “At a time when we see exclusion often on a federal level, what you see here in DeKalb County is inclusion. It breaks down walls and helps people understand the difference in culture and appreciate it.”
Stone Mountain native Dan Whittemore has been to every Lunar New Year festival at Stone Mountain since it was first held in 2023. It’s come a long way since the first rendition, he said.
“There was one skinny little dragon and they handed lanterns out to little kids and that was it,” he said. “There wasn’t much at all.”
Now with a variety of performances from buchaechum traditional Korean fan dance performers, aspiring K-pop dancers and — noteworthy to Whittemore — more impressive dragons for the parade, the 62-year-old is singing praise.
“I love the cultural shows, and it’s just the atmosphere and cultural aspect is so different from everyday and I love that Stone Mountain is adding more festivals every year,” he said.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lunar New Year, which lands on Jan. 29 this year, marks the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar and is widely celebrated in China, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries. Each country celebrates the occasion with their own traditions and food, but the shared meaning of the holiday is good luck and fortune for the future.
For Ivy Liu, 25, her favorite part of Lunar New Year is coming together with family and cooking different Chinese dishes including dumplings, chicken feet, hot pot and stir-fry vegetables.
“This Lunar New Year Festival brings cultures and families together and shows other parts of the world our traditions,” the Snellville resident said as she and her family waited for the drone show to begin.
Liu said this is her second time at the festival, and it has quickly become part of her family’s Lunar New Year traditions.
“I came last year and this year and I’m definitely coming back again,” she said.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To top off the night, the drone and light show brought spectators through the origin story of Lunar New Year and the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. This year is the Year of the Snake, the sixth of the 12-year cycle, and represents transformation and rebirth.
Chinese Cultural School of Atlanta Chairwoman Ting Chiu beamed with pride and gratitude at the end of the festival’s opening night.
“I’ve lived here 30 years and this is the first time for the last three years to have this kind of celebration this big at a state, county level, so it means a lot to us,” she said. “We have these kind of celebrations in our community, but not like this and no one to put it together, and Stone Mountain did it.”
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