Chinese New Year is on February 7, 2008 and the festivities have gone on all week to celebrate the Year of the Rat.
Hawaii is so diverse with many cultures and it is always a unique experience when different festivities pop up for different ethnic cultures.
We missed yesterdays "Night in Chinatown Festival and Parade" so we hurried to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet today (flea market) to catch the Chinese Lion Dance and wishing well wishes on each of the vendors for a year of prosperity.
Everyone stopped shopping to take pictures and feed the lion dollars. When the lion opened his mouth I slipped a dollar in and boy did I get a wonderful bow and a couple of squirmy moves!
Chinatown has a variety of shops, fish, meat and vegetable markets, wares, restaurants and anything and everything you can think of coming from the orient. Our Chinatown is not only Chinese shops but Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino and more.
The Chinese & Chinatown's History in Hawaii:
- The Chinese arrived on two ships back in December of 1788.
- In the 1800's the Chinese set up shops in Chinatown to sell their wares.
- Between 1852 and 1876 over 3900 Chinese came to Hawaii as import laborers to work in the fast growing sugar cane industry. The made up 49% of our work force for the plantations.
- By 1884 the number working in plantations declined due to many wanting to be self employed with their own shops and selling their wares.
- In 1886 the big Chinatown fire destroyed 7,000 Chinese homes and 350 homes of the Native Hawaiians. Most of Chinatown was destroyed with over eight blocks burned.
- In 1900 the Board of Health deliberately set fires to buildings built not under code but mainly to wipe out the Bubonic Plague spreading through Chinatown.
Kung Hee Fat Choy! (Happy Chinese New Year to One and All!!)
Photos and history. Sally, you really go the extra mile to make your posts interesting, and you engage your readers. Thanks.
Mike in Tucson
Linda: It is fun Linda! No matter what...there's something different going on :)
Mike: Thanks Mike....I'm glad!
Carole: It was so cute Carole! They open the mouth...you stick in on the tongue looking part and they close their mouth...bow a thank you and do a bunch of dance moves...that was neat! I tell you what...though it burned ...it was rebuilt and rebuilt and there are still many OLD buildings, newer buildings and so forth :) Our business district is a few blocks down too.
Lizette: I think it was a club or something. Pretty neat. In Mililani they have them go around to the businesses as well.
Sally,
Looks like a fun event and your pic's are really cool! I think my year is the monkey.....;)
Hi Sally,
Neat photos, I would have loved to see that myself. We had a great time ourselves last week at Aloha Stadium, we made the rounds.
What a fun Sunday! Is it my imagination or do you guys have more fun there?
Suzanne: Mine is the Rooster and it sure tells a great story. Our bookeeper is a monkey too.
Mark: This IS your year! Celebrate!
Georgina: You ever been to the stadium swap meet? Wonderful and huge! Chinatown would have been more fun the night before.
Thanks Dan! Glad you could get some info!
Cynthia: We MAKE our fun haha!
Melissa: So do I .....interesting stuff huh?
Matt: Plenty of history all over the world. :)
Teri: Don't all places have some oriental kind of block or something? I see it on tv and stuff :)
Sharon: Haven't been to Florida since the early 80's when we went to Jacksonville.
Jason: I presume soon? :)
Cheryl: I thank you for your compliments and glad it's helped you. We learn so much here on ActiveRain don't we?
Katerina: It was drizzling and stuff yesterday although I did manage to get a few shots :) We were going to go around the fish and vege markets but it started pouring.
Sally, I had no idea that Honolulu had a Chinese settlement there that long ago. Fascinating history and lovely pictures.....looks like fun! I love reading your posts about the history of your area....and all of your other posts too.
(-:
Jo
You always amaze me - I can just picture you waking up in the middle of the night with a new blog idea - keep em coming
Jo: Thanks Jo...I'm glad you enjoy
Thesa: I actually get an idea and jot it down until I get to it LOL!
George: Chinese custom. I wish I had remembered the Saturday Chinatown festival..that would have really be fun!
I bet not many places have lion dancers in their swap meet. We live in a really wonderful place.
Thank you for the history lesson. I did not know about the extent of the fires in Chinatowns history.
Randy: Yup...we surely do...have some 'different' stuff going on here.