El Paso welcomed the Year of the Horse with performances, crafts and cultural traditions during the city’s Lunar New Year celebration.
Lunar New Year, celebrated in China, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and other Asian countries and communities around the world, marks the beginning of a new year and the arrival of spring.
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City officials and community partners began hosting Lunar New Year events virtually in 2020, and the celebration has grown each year since. Chinese New Year has been celebrated in El Paso for almost 150 years.
Members of the Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School perform a dragon dance at Cleveland Square Park during El Paso’s Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in El Paso.
“El Paso has a really rich East and Southeast Asian history,” Nora Rose, community outreach supervisor for the El Paso Museum of History, said. “We actually had the first Chinatown in Texas, starting in the early 1880s with the arrival of the railroad. And Lunar New Year has been celebrated here for almost 150 years.
“There are records of newspaper articles, going back to the 1880s, talking about the Chinese community at that time, holding New Year’s celebrations, setting off firecrackers in the street, going to each other’s houses for dinner and things like that.”
“It’s really beautiful to kind of think about bringing that celebration back to Downtown where it historically happened,” Rose said.
The celebration this year featured lion and dragon dances, martial arts demonstrations by the Shaolin Wushu Kung Fu Academy and student performances by the Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School at Cleveland Square Park on Saturday, Feb. 28.
Shinping “Champagne” Chyi, principal of the Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School, performs tai chi sword with her students at Cleveland Square Park during El Paso’s Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in El Paso.
Families from all different cultures in El Paso participated in hands-on activities, including learning to write their names in Chinese characters and creating paper horse crafts in honor of the new lunar year and learned to play traditional games at the Mexican American Cultural Center and the El Paso Museum of History.
“It’s really beautiful to see all these different cultures coming together and exchanging with one another,” Rose said.
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Shinping “Champagne” Chyi, principal of the El Paso Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School, said she enjoys sharing culture with her students. In her classes, they share and exchange Mexican, American and Chinese traditions.
Children carry a dragon prop during a cultural procession for El Paso’s Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in El Paso.
“I’m very happy that people have the interest because learning a new language, it’s a challenge,” said Chyi. “And Chinese is a very, very constructive, very logic. A very sentimental language.”
An artisan market featured Asian-owned businesses selling food and cultural items.
A cultural procession through the Downtown Arts District symbolically scared away evil spirits while celebrating renewal, ancestry and community.
A performer dressed as a traditional Chinese deity walks during a cultural procession for El Paso’s Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in El Paso.
The El Paso Museum of History features the “A History of East and Southeast Asian Cultures” exhibit, celebrating Asian culture and family stories in El Paso. The exhibit opened in September to highlight the community’s history and will remain on display through January 2027.
“Through that exhibit, we were connected even more with a lot of families that have roots here in El Paso and Juárez,” Rose said. “Having that component of history and getting some more of those families involved also helped really bring some of that history to the forefront and be able to showcase these different cultures and traditions.”
Gaby Velasquez may be reached at gavelasquez@elpasotimes.com; @gabyavelasquez on Instagram.
El Paso celebrates Year of the Horse with Lunar New Year festivities
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Shinping “Champagne” Chyi, principal of the Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School, performs tai chi sword with her students at Cleveland Square Park during El Paso’s Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in El Paso.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Year of the Horse: Cultural dances celebrate Lunar New Year in El Paso