Moscow intends to widely celebrate Chinese New Year for the first time

The capital authorities, together with the Chinese embassy and within the framework of the Years of Culture of Russia and China (2024 – 2025) announced by Vladimir Putin, are preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Moscow. The city mayor’s office said that by February 10, New Arbat, Tverskoy Boulevard and other central streets will be decorated in Chinese style. Citizens will be invited to attend a Chinese food fair, calligraphy master classes and acrobatic shows. The Chinese Embassy reported that such a celebration would be held in Moscow for the first time, and expressed hope that it would become “historic” for the Russian Federation and China. IMEMO RAS considers the holiday “the most open and suitable for intercultural dialogue,” specifying that in China at this time it is customary to eat dumplings and massively explode firecrackers to scare away evil spirits.

The fact that the Moscow government and the Chinese Embassy are preparing to hold celebrations in the capital on the occasion of the Chinese New Year was reported by the Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation in its Telegram channel. “The time has come to think about how to celebrate this wonderful holiday,” Chinese diplomats said, adding that the capital’s authorities, together with the Chinese, “have prepared a celebration program.”

The capital’s mayor’s office reminded Kommersant that President Vladimir Putin declared 2024 and 2025 joint years of culture between Russia and China. The first thematic festival “Chinese New Year in Moscow” is included in the unified plan of events of the Russia-China Years of Culture and is timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The mayor’s office confirmed that the “event celebration program” is organized by the Moscow government with the support of the Chinese embassy and the Russian Foreign Ministry. We are talking about the “Chinese New Year in Moscow” festival: several sites are being prepared for it, decorated in “traditional Chinese style,” the capital’s mayor’s office added, in Kamergersky Lane, on Tverskaya Square, Tverskoy Boulevard and Novy Arbat. The program includes a Chinese food fair, master classes in calligraphy and cooking, and learning to play Go. Acrobatic shows and martial arts displays with the participation of Chinese athletes are promised at the Sun of Moscow complex at VDNKh (where the 135-meter Ferris wheel is located). The Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation is also organizing a folk music concert at the House of Music, and a fair at the Chinese hotel chain Soluxe Hotel Moscow. “Thematic illumination of the city, including on the media facade of the Ostankino Tower, will add brightness to the holiday,” the mayor’s office added, without disclosing details.

Let us note that Moscow has a wealth of experience in holding New Year’s festivities, but traditional Russian ones. Thus, since 2013, the Journey to Christmas festival has been held in the capital. The event in 2019/20 was a record one: the festival with 8.5 thousand master classes, 1.5 thousand concert programs and 150 ice shows lasted 50 days. According to the mayor’s office, this event attracted a total of 26 million visitors at 81 venues. In 2020, the festival was not held due to the pandemic (but the city was decorated with previously purchased decorations). In 2021, Journey to Christmas returned in a more modest format – at 27 venues. The 2023/24 festival was already held at 36 venues, but was still more modest than the festivals of the 2010s. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the festival was also dedicated to soldiers in the Northern Military District zone: a collection of letters, postcards and gifts for military personnel was organized at the venues.

The Chinese Embassy in Moscow is pleased that the celebration of the Chinese New Year in the Russian capital will be held in this format for the first time. “This will definitely become a historic event in the framework of relations between the two countries,” the embassy added.

The head of the Center for Asian-Pacific Studies at IMEMO RAS, Alexander Lomanov, calls the Chinese New Year “the most open holiday suitable for intercultural dialogue”: “It is very noisy, bright with an abundance of red. The experience of celebrating it has taken root well in the West, as it is based on large Chinese communities.” “The presence of an authentic component of Chinese culture, and not stylization as something Chinese, is quite capable of ensuring success if the celebration becomes regular,” noted Mr. Lomanov. In China itself, the main New Year traditions, according to the expert, are eating dumplings and using a huge number of firecrackers to drive out evil spirits. But the main content of the holiday remains “a trip to your small homeland to visit relatives,” when “the whole country boards trains and planes at the same time,” the expert adds.

Alexander Voronov, Natalia Portyakova