Random: Chinese New Year celebrations in China Town

Last week we went to the China Town of Calcutta, commonly known as Tangra to participate in the Chinese New Year celebrations. Tangra is a part of town that we only visit when we want to dine and feast on authentic Chinese food. Being born and lived almost my entire life in Calcutta, this is the first time I ventured there to see the Chinese New Year celebrations. I wasn't quite expecting a huge thing, just a small community affair, but I was wrong!


When we arrived around 9 O' clock, the place was quite empty. We promptly headed into one of the many restaurants there for a quick Chinese dinner consisting of soup and fried spicy chicken. When we came out about half an hour later, the place had completely transformed! The narrow dingy streets were now thronged with people, fairy lights strung across the entrances, hawkers selling balloons and toys. It was nothing short of a fair ground.

Upon asking a bystander, we learned that everyone was waiting for the Dragon! Whatever that meant! We waited with everyone for the arrival of this mythical creature. Soon enough, we heard loud drum beats booming across the street and a procession of school kids, all dressed in similar t-shirts coming our way. And sure enough, there was a very colourful and ornamental dragon floating above their heads. The lucky one got to be the dragon's head and some other kid would hold the tail and they would dance around and interact with the audience. It was quite a sight!


As soon as the excitement of the first Dragon was wearing off, along came another dragon with it's very own procession and paraphernalia! Then came another and then another. By now, the small and narrow streets were bursting at the seams with people! In one word, "Breath taking"! The amazing thing about Tangra is that it wasn't only the Chinese who were involved in the festivities, there were other locals as well!

After a point the numerous dragons got into mock fights and danced around all over the place, their respective drummers beating their instruments louder than the other which was complimented by the bursting of fire crackers! I was scared that the crackers might hit someone, but apparently no one seemed bothered.

At around 11:30 PM, the Chinese New Year arrived and everyone wished each other. Everyone seemed to know each other in Tangra. The Dragons slowly made their exit only to return next year with their respective  processions. We spent an amazing evening at China Town, unlike any other that we've ever witnessed and came back home feeling happily tiered.




Note: Due to poor light conditions and an amateur digital camera, I couldn't get good photos!