The Chinese New Year event in Chinatown in Downtown Fresno Saturday will feature lion dancers visiting more than a dozen local businesses. Photo by Tomato Toto on unsplash.com

Chinatown Fresno will host its annual Chinese New Year celebration on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. 

The event, which has become a decades-long tradition, starts at Central Fish and features lion dancers from local schools performing while visiting 14 businesses along Kern, F, and Tulare streets.

Monica Valero, the community development marketing specialist for Chinatown Fresno Foundation, spoke on what the community can look forward to on Saturday. 

“I just hope that they enjoy themselves and they’re able to appreciate and experience the culture of the trend of the Chinese tradition,” Valero said. “This year is the celebration of the Year of the Snake, which is a symbol of wisdom, charm, elegance and transformation.”

As part of the tradition, businesses present the lions with lettuce and red envelopes containing donations, symbolizing good fortune and prosperity.

Valero explained the symbolic meaning of the red envelope tradition.

“The red envelope will contain the donation that the business will want to give in order to support the lion dancing team,” Valero said. “Basically, the lion will eat the lettuce and spit it out. That kind of denotes new beginnings, prosperity, good luck and fortune for the business.”

Participating businesses include Central Fish, Esperanza’s Cocina, Ofelia’s Barber Shop, La Elegante, YoshiNOW, Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore and Cuca’s.