1,000 Lamps Ceremony - photo by Clare Keogh
15th January 2020
Cork City Council is celebrating Cork’s strong links with China and her sister city Shanghai by supporting Cork City Chinese New Year Festival 2020 with two free events heralding the New Year of the Rat. The events will be hosted by the Chinese Esoteric Buddhist School, the Unitarian Church and Nano Nagle Place.
This year, Chinese New Year falls on Saturday 25th January.
The first of these celebratory events is the beautiful 1,000 Lamps ceremony on Saturday 25th January in the Unitarian Church, Princes Street from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The second event will be two colourful and lively Lion and Dragon Dance sessions on Sunday 2nd February, the first taking place at 1 p.m. in Nano Nagle Place and the second session taking place at 6 p.m. in the Unitarian Church, Princes Street.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. John Sheehan said: “This is the second year of this festival in Cork and building on last year’s success Cork City Council are delighted to support the festival again this year as a further engagement with our local Chinese Community, the Chinese Business Community and the many Chinese International students who come here to our UNESCO Learning City.
“We are extremely proud of the very active engagement we have with Shanghai and I was very proud to have visited the City as one of my first international engagements as Lord Mayor. The Twinning between our Cities is something we are very proud of and we cherish the relationships which have blossomed from it.”
These collaborative events are inclusive, colourful, artistic and in keeping with Chinese tradition and culture. This affords all those living, studying and working in our City a unique opportunity to saviour another of our many cultures which continue to add to the experience of living in Cork City in a very positive way.
