Decatur Lunar New Year

Year of the Dragon

Join us for a Pan-Asian Lunar New Year festival, where we celebrate with our family & friends, featuring the diverse customs of: Vietnam, South Korea, China, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines. Follow us on social media for the latest updates @decaturlny.

FEB32024

1-5pm Passports, Food, Marketplace, and Performances:

1:45pm Atlanta Chinese Dance Company
2:30pm Lion Dance by Sang Anh Duong Lion & Dragon Dance Team
3:30pm Tinikling (a Filipino folk dance) by GA Tech Filipino Students

Ebster Courtyard @ Beacon Municipal Center (404 W Trinity Place; Decatur, GA)

$10 per Adult; Kids FREE

All proceeds benefit Asian American Voices for Education. Background art created by Andrew Blooms.

If weather makes it unsafe to hold our event on Feb 3rd, the rain date is Feb 25th

PRE-ORDERS have ended. Please head to the DLNY Merch store at the festival to purchase your hoodie and t-shirts.

Year of the Dragon

2024 will be the Year of the Dragon. In Asian cultures, the dragon is not the fire-breathing, winged villain that many people know from western fairy tales. Asian (or Eastern) dragons are water dwellers. And though they fly, they do not use big wings, but look more like they are swimming in the sky. Check our our gallery below to learn more about the differences.

We invited all children to submit their drawings of these Asian water dragons for our 2nd annual contest. The deadline for accepting submissions was January 15th. Come to the festival and see the gallery of entries and vote for the winning dragon! Online voting is now open! The winner will receive 4 free passes to Synchronicity Theater’s production of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

The Lunar New Year Festival is a showcase of the diverse ways different countries in Asia celebrate the New Year. It's often called "Chinese New Year" but that's a misnomer, as other countries outside of China also honor it. In fact, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines (amongst others) all take part. What is universal amongst all the countries is that Lunar New Year signifies spending time with family and engaging in traditions that bring good luck and health.

Communities

For the Asian American community, our Lunar New Year is an opportunity to celebrate together and highlight the uniqueness of our different cultures.

For the greater Decatur community and beyond, it’s a chance to learn about and be included in the diversity of Asian American communities.

About Us

In 2022, we held Decatur’s First Lunar New Year celebration in partnership with the City Schools of Decatur’s lower elementary school PTAs. The event was focused on families and education. Each family received a passport to the 5 cultural booths, where they could do crafts and learn how the holiday is celebrated to earn a stamp. We also had vendors, food, and a lion dance.