For the fourth year running, Madrid is celebrating Chinese New Year with a cultural and festive programme. Concerts, workshops, street parades, and gastronomic routes will all be part of the programme open to locals and visitors alike.
Chinese New Year, which at this fourth edition marks the Year of the Pig, according to the traditional Chinese calendar, dates back 4,000 years and is a major festivity celebrated all around the world . Coinciding with the start of the crop cycle, it marks the end of winter and welcomes in a new season; hence its alternative name of "Spring Festival".
The festivities include a varied cultural and entertainment programme, which encompasses the activities developed by the Chinese Embassy in Spain, to others promoted by the Department of Culture in the Usera district, and a traditional fair in the Plaza de España, in collaboration with Madrid's Regional Government.
Like every year, dragons will leave their native Asia and make their way around the streets of Madrid at the Chinese New Year Great Parade, with live music, dancing, traditional Chinese costume and giant dragons. The programme will include the floating lanterns ceremony and the traditional Chinese New Year Fair, where you can buy, sample and visit stands with arts and crafts, along with a wide variety of Chinese products, as well as Chinese and Spanish cultural organisations and associations.
