Rio de Janeiro celebrates colorful Spring Festival

World Today

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second biggest city, officially celebrated its first Spring Festival this weekend, with a range of colorful cultural activities.

CGTN’s Lucrecia Franco reports.
Follow Lucrecia C. Franco on Twitter @LucreciaFranco

Dazzling dragon dances kicked off a three-day Spring Festival celebration in Rio de Janeiro to mark this year’s Chinese lunar New Year.

A spectacle most locals had never seen before – it included a fashion show, a tai chi demonstration and musical performances, among other uniquely Chinese cultural traditions. It was also the first time that Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue was lit up in red.

About one-fifth of the 250,000 Chinese immigrants in Brazil live in Rio. Many of them are proud to show off the ancient customs of their motherland.

It was the first but not the last public Spring Festival in Rio. It will now become part of the city’s annual calendar to bring Brazilians closer to a Chinese culture that goes back thousands of years.