Victoria Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe puts it mildly when she says The Year of the Rat has been a “difficult” one.
Most people will be happy to see the back of a cycle that brought us COVID-19 and a global pandemic. So there’s more than a little optimism and hope riding on the Year of the Ox’s broad shoulders when it arrives Friday.
Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to put a crimp in festivities of any sort.
Normally, Lunar New Year celebrations are a time when the Chinese community bids farewell to the old year and welcomes the new one by gathering with family and friends, eating favourite foods and visiting with elders as a show of respect, Thornton-Joe says.
In Greater Victoria, people flock to the oldest Chinatown in Canada to watch the traditional lion dance and hear the sounds of firecrackers echoing along Fisgard Street.
None of that is possible this year because of restrictions on social gatherings designed to prevent the virus from spreading.
So Thornton-Joe is urging people across the capital region to help mark the occasion in other ways. She wants residents to wear red on Friday, decorate their doorways and windows with red or New Year’s decorations, and keep the decorations up for the rest of February.
“We believe that when you decorate your house and you have red, it brings good luck to your home,” she said. “And good luck for us means: prosperity, which is important, especially for businesses right now; happiness, which, as we have learned, everybody’s going through some degree of mental illness or fatigue or stress; and then lastly, and most importantly, is good health, which of course we want good health for everyone in our community.”
Victoria council unanimously endorsed Thornton-Joe’s call to action last week and she’s already receiving supportive messages from people and pictures of decorated doorways. In some cases, people have said that in the past they felt uncomfortable participating because it wasn’t their culture, but now that they’ve been encouraged to take part, they’re excited about it, Thornton-Joe said.
“It’s also letting the Chinese community know that this is something that’s really strong in our culture, but we cannot and we should not be celebrating to the extent that we normally do. But there is a way to celebrate together, but apart.”
