6th Annual Hilo Chinese New Year Festival was FUN!

Aloha Kakou & Kung Hee Fat Choy!
On Saturday, February 16, 2008, the 6th Hilo Chinese New Year Festival was held at downtown Hilo, where at Kalakaua Park, many locals and visitors alike came to celebrate the beginning of Year of the Earth Rat!
At Sig Zane Designs, we all waited for the arrival of the Lion Dancers. The Chinese cabbage was hung above the door for the Lions as an offering of food.

The Big Island Shaolin Arts Lion Dancers who opened the Festival at 9am in front of the Kress Building came down to make its way to our store, as on lookers gathered around to see this exciting event.

The firecrackers were hung from the Kukui tree in front of the store and was lit. It was a huge blast and the blessing of the Chinese New Year was commenced!

The evil spirits are driven away by the firecrackers which excited the Lions to do more dancing. The Lions represent strength, wisdom and good luck in China, and are known to chase the evil spirits away.

Sig welcomed one of the lions to come into the store for the blessings, and offered lysee, a little red packet filled with money. Hope what's inside the lysee comes back a thousand fold this year!!

The two lions walked into the store and blessed its every corner.

And as one of the Lions exited from the store, it "ate" the offering of food and "spitted" it out, showering audiences with "good luck"!

Mahalo to the Gold and White Lion Dancers for blessing our store!

And it was a beautiful sunny day for the 6th Festival at Kalakaua Park.

Sig Zane Designs sponsored the Keiki Art Contest. Children were asked to draw a picture of a rat, in honor of the animal of the year 2008!

Many keiki of all ages participated, at the East Hawaii Cultural Center, who was one of the sponsors of this event.

The Keiki Art Contest winners were announced. And one of the children who got awarded (hey that's my son!) points to his artwork as Kuha`o Zane MCs. Prizes were given by one of my favorite boutique stores, and a co-sponsor to this event, Hana Hou.

The keiki art works are being displayed at Hilo Glass & Art Supply (another sponsor to this event) during the next week, so please go and see what our keiki has put out in their efforts!

Way to go keiki!

Alice Moon (center), the producer of the Festival with Kuha`o (left) and Sig Zane (right)!

She told me it was Sig, who gave her the idea and the official nod of acknowledgement to get this festival started. Although, initially, she told him that becasue she's not Chinese she didn't feel "right" doing it. But Sig being who he is, reassured her by saying "I'm Chinese. Just do it!"

So mahalo to all of you who brought this wonderful event for us in the community!

A hui hou & Lots of Aloha,

Reiko