SAN­DRA L BLOOD

This year, the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go will cel­e­brate its rich cul­tur­al her­itage in grand style at An­chor­age, Ch­aguara­mas, on the west­ern penin­su­la. The two-day Spring Fes­ti­val marks the Chi­nese New Year and ho­n­ours the Year of the Fire Horse—a rare event that oc­curs once every 60 years.

Pre­sent­ed by the Chi­nese As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T, the fes­ti­val runs on Sat­ur­day from 1 pm to 6 pm and Sun­day from 10 am to 4 pm. Tick­ets are priced at $80, with two chil­dren ad­mit­ted free per adult tick­et.

Fes­ti­val-go­ers can look for­ward to a full cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence, in­clud­ing free tea tast­ing, tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese games, cal­lig­ra­phy and pa­per-cut­ting work­shops, pho­to booths, video games, and fun ac­tiv­i­ties for kids such as face paint­ing and claw ma­chines. Food en­thu­si­asts will en­joy au­then­tic Chi­nese cui­sine, dim sum, and bo­ba, while shop­pers can ex­plore a va­ri­ety of stalls of­fer­ing jade jew­el­ry and oth­er trea­sures.

En­ter­tain­ment high­lights in­clude per­for­mances by the In­ter­na­tion­al Drag­on Dance team—a Mex­i­can li­on dance troupe ar­riv­ing in Trinidad to­day—tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese shad­ow pup­petry, and ex­cit­ing Drag­on Boat races. This year’s fes­ti­val theme is “Ex­plor­ing the Cul­ture and Scenery of the Plains of Chi­na for the Year of the Fire Horse.”

Fran­co Siu Chong leads the Chi­nese New Year Fes­ti­vals Com­mit­tee, with mem­bers Clyde Al­lum Catt, Charles Cheng, Dawen Huang, He­len Lee, Janelle Wang, Daisy Feng, Ash­ley Xue, and Feng Qing Jun.

The Year of the Fire Horse com­bines the en­er­gy of the horse with the el­e­ment of fire. Holis­tic Chi­nese as­trologer Ly­dia Lee notes that this year is “fast-mov­ing and high-en­er­gy,” dif­fer­ent from oth­er horse years.

“Fire changes the tem­po. It am­pli­fies emo­tion, ur­gency, and ex­pres­sion. The Fire Horse charges for­ward with to­tal con­vic­tion,” she says. “Stalled projects sud­den­ly move, con­ver­sa­tions long avoid­ed fi­nal­ly hap­pen, and re­la­tion­ships ei­ther deep­en or end, be­cause Fire leaves lit­tle room for am­bi­gu­i­ty.”

The last Fire Horse year oc­curred in 1966, mak­ing this cel­e­bra­tion par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial.

Tick­ets are avail­able on­line via the fes­ti­val’s link in bio, at the door, or through Tem­ple Fair tick­et booths lo­cat­ed at var­i­ous sites in­clud­ing Ex­cel­lent Stores (Movie Towne, C3 Cen­tre, Brent­wood Mall), FCMC (Trinci­ty), De One (Gulf City Mall), New Dim Sum King (South­ern Mall, East Gate Mall), Good Luck (Ari­api­ta Av­enue, POS), D P Cak­ery (East Gate Mall and 67 Tra­garete Road, POS), Kyu-Ra­man (Price Plaza, Ch­agua­nas), Sin­cere’s (Cipero Street, San Fer­nan­do), and the Chi­nese As­so­ci­a­tion in St. Ann’s, POS.