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With only a little over a month into the Year of the Dragon, there is still an exciting and prosperous road ahead of us according to Chinese astrology.

The Dragon symbol signifies success and happiness and is a significant symbol of power. For this reason and many more, Toronto Public Library celebrated with wonderful Lunar New Year programs that have taken place at different library branches.

  
On January 21st, Flemingdon Park Branch had a Chinese New Year celebration with a cultural presentation, stories, and performances by Flemingdon Park's Chinese seniors singing and dancing group. Here they are singing and dancing to the spirit of the dragon!

Bridlewood Public Library hosted their own celebration of Chinese New Year on January 19th with Tai Chi, Dance, and a fun craft to take home. Volunteer seniors as well as library staff all worked together to create a memorable event.
          
Staff at Bridlewood Library also shared riddles, stories, and refreshments with the audience!

Another library that participated in the festivities was the Gerrard/Ashdale Public Library. Children and adults all created their own lanterns out of red pocket envelopes on January 16th. Stories, cultural significance of Chinese symbols and traditions, as well as refreshments were shared as everyone participated in this fun evening.

In yet another one of our busy branches, Lillian H. Smith Public Library also joined in on the wonderful celebration by hosting their grand Chinese New Year program on February 5th. The celebration included a Lion Dancing and Kung Fu demonstration show. There were also dancers and instrumental performers that played various Chinese muscial instruments including the erhu, pipa, ruan, and gu-zheng.

Here's a picture of Mimi, one of the dancers from Toronto Yoga Studio, and a photo of the lion dancers as they are just about to receive their lettuce on the wooden stick!

These photos are only but a few celebrations mentioned throughout all of our 98 library branches. Many of our other library branches also had fantastic Chinese New Year celebrations to welcome the Year of the Dragon.

The Dragon is a major symbol of good fortune in Chinese Astrology and signifies luck. These wonderful celebrations are only the beginning of a prosperous year!