Text, photos and video by VINCENT GO
THE sound of firecrackers filled the narrow streets of Binondo as crowds packed the district to watch traditional lion and dragon dancers welcome the Lunar New Year.
Binondo, as Manila’s Chinatown is known, joined the world’s Chinese community in greeting the Lunar New Year with fireworks, feng shui, trinkets and Chinese delicacies, which they believe will bring good luck and drive away evil spirits and bad omens.
Binondo is also the world’s oldest Chinatown. It was established in 1594 by the Spanish Governor Luis Perez Dasmariñas, and has since been populated by ethnic Chinese and become a bustling merchant and commercial district.
In the Chinese lunar calendar, February 10 marked the start of the Year of the Water Snake, which ends on Jan. 30, 2014.