How to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Barcelona

The Chinese New Year starts on February 1, 2022 and the Catalan capital is preparing several events over two weeks to welcome the new year.

From January 28 to February 15, Barcelona will celebrate the Year of the Tiger, just as millions of Chinese residents do in their home country.

Barcelona’s main celebration will be on January 29 on the city’s Lluís Companys boulevard, next to the Arc de Triomf.

For the occasion, organizers have scheduled shows from 10 am to 8 pm that will bring Chinese culture to the streets of Catalonia. Attendees will also be able to taste traditional cuisine and participate in crafts workshops.

What events have been planned?

Starting at 10 am, people can walk around a Chinese fair set up next to the main stage. But 12 pm local time is when the dance of the Lion will start.

It will not be until 12:16 pm when the event will properly start with the sound of a gong and at 12:20 pm, Barcelona will host a spectacle named "Happy Year of the Tiger."

Among the other events planned for Saturday 29, are a Kung Fu show at 1:18 pm that will take place again at 5:55 pm.

The celebration on Saturday will finish with the dance of the Dragon, from 6:25 pm. However, organizers have planned several other activities for the two weeks of celebrations.

The Year of the Tiger

From February 1, 2022 to January 21, 2023, Chinese residents will commemorate the Year of the Tiger.

The animal is known as the king of all the beasts in the country and the zodiac symbol is associated with strength, exorcising evils, and bravery.

60,000 Chinese people in Catalonia

Chinese nationals make up the second-largest foreign community in Catalonia with 60,000 inhabitants, of which 20,000 live in Barcelona.

Several Chinese associations in Catalonia take part in the celebrations every year alongside Catalan groups. Around 200 individuals volunteer annually.

Attacks against the Chinese community

At the beginning of 2020, when the Covid-19 was still considered an epidemic and not a pandemic, the sense of threat in Europe was distant. However, by February 2020, some residents felt attacked for being Chinese.

At the time, the government condemned what they called "isolated incidents of rejection and stigmatization" faced by members of the Chinese community residing in Catalonia, adding that it was "entirely against the racist and xenophobic attacks" that had occurred since the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in the Asian country.

Chakir El Homrani, then-Labor, Social Affairs and Families minister in Catalonia, also met with the Chinese consul general in Barcelona, Lin Nan, to assess the impact of the disease first identified in Wuhan.