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Last Friday the 20th of February, the Casa de Campo community celebrated the start of the Chinese New Year at Chinois in the Marina Casa de Campo with an “all you can eat” feast!
As one of Casa de Campo’s most popular festive occasions – more than 200 people joined in the fun! And the fun wasn’t just contained to Chinois – the celebrations rang out all across the Marina Casa de Campo, to be enjoyed by all those dining in Peperoni, Limoncello and La Morela too!
Whilst many Casa de Campo villa owners took the occasion as an opportunity to indulge in a little Chinese food with friends – others seized the occasion as a chance to dress up – and dress up they did!
In the midst of dinner, the sound of drums broke through the clatter of chopsticks, signalling the start of the magical “dance of the lions” – often also called the “dance of the dragon”. Two long red winding dragon danced and swayed between the dining tables at Chinois and to the applause of the crowd, 2 smaller more elaborately dressed lions bounded their way around the restaurant, posing for photos and rearing their giant sequinned heads in dance and celebration.
The traditional Chinese New Year ceremony involves the “lighting of the incense in honor of the ancestors”, the traditional “lion dance” and fire-crackers – a series of activities meant to “ward off evil spirits.”
Happy Chinese New Year!
The following collection of photos were taken by Alejandro Heredia at the Chinese New Year celebration in the Marina Casa de Campo:
