Put down your brooms, cancel that hair appointment and hold your horses because Lunar New Year is here, ushering in the Year of the Fire Horse.
And at Lan Su Chinese Garden, holding your horses is more than a figure of speech. On select days, visitors can meet the animal of the year up close — in miniature form — as part of the garden’s Lunar New Year celebration.
“The Year of the Fire Horse is not transitional, it’s full on transformation,” said Elizabeth Nye, executive director at Lan Su Chinese Garden. “It’s sort of like fiery courage, hope. There’s just a ton of energy. It’s not to be taken lightly at all.”
Opening day visitors meet Loki, a miniature horse.Vickie Connor | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Lan Su Chinese Garden began the Lunar New Year with a full house, welcoming over 100 visitors into the garden Tuesday for a zodiac animal ceremony with live snakes, miniature horse meet and greets, craft activities, Chinese calligraphy and a lion dance performance.
Celebrations continue through March 8 with nighttime entertainment every Wednesday through Sunday, featuring tranquil music and lantern viewing evenings or a more high-energy zodiac animal light show and a live Dragon Dance procession. Daytime festivities include mini horse meet and greets on Fridays, storytimes on Saturdays and cultural performances, family crafts, lion dances and Chinese calligraphy on Saturdays and Sundays.
A lion dance by Portland Lee’s Association opened the ceremony.Vickie Connor | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Read more: Lunar New Year 2026: Oregon celebrations honor Year of the Fire Horse
Suna Chew was just passing through Chinatown on Lunar New Year when she stumbled upon Lan Su Chinese Garden’s opening day festivities. Chew landed in Portland on Monday, joining her husband for a weeklong business trip from Singapore.
Some of the activities in the garden reminded Chew of life back in Singapore, including the papercutting station that invited guests to cut out symbols or Chinese characters from red paper. Common symbols included good fortune, fish, flowers and zodiac animals.
“In every household, we have this,” Chew said about the Chinese papercutting decorations. “We stick in front of our house… It’s called blessing.”
The peaceful garden celebration was quieter than Chew was used to, describing Singaporean festivities as a big party with lots of food and family, but Lan Su transported her to another country entirely.
Lunar New Year decorations at Lan Su Chinese Garden on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
“The traditional building is beautiful,” Chew said of Lan Su’s architecture. “We don’t have that in Indonesia, so I think it’s very impressive. I feel like I’m traveling in China right now.”
The garden’s architecture and holiday programming have also drawn repeat visitors, including Jake and Yiwei Austin, who returned for a second year with their young son.
“I’m from China, and my son is half Chinese, so I want to show him what Chinese culture is about and New Year traditions,” Yiwei said. “I learned about this place last year. When we came here, I was blown away by how authentic the garden looks.”
Visitors enter Lan Su’s gates where they received a special red envelope, or hóngbāo, for good luck.Vickie Connor | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Yiwei, who is from Shanghai, said she doesn’t have as many opportunities to visit family as she would like, so she has focused on passing along cultural traditions to her son. One of those includes placing red envelopes filled with money, hóngbāo in Mandarin, under his pillow the night before Lunar New Year.
Traditionally, red envelopes are given by elders or married adults to children and younger, unmarried relatives as a way of offering blessings, good fortune and prosperity for the year ahead.
Wandering through the garden, visitors were offered their own hóngbāo and a chance to explore Lunar New Year decorations and stations set up in the garden sharing traditions and customs.
“We use those opportunities to teach people about culture, traditions, philosophies driving communities in China and how that shows up in the present day,” Nye said. “In the world, with relationships between countries and technology, with AI, all of these sorts of things, we think that deepening cultural understanding is more important than ever in helping to reduce conflict and build collaboration.”
If you go: Lunar New Year festivities continue through March 8; daytime activities are offered 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily; nighttime activities are offered 5:30-7 p.m. and 7:30-9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday; Lan Su Chinese Garden, 239 N.W. Everett St.; tickets are $16 during the day and $22.95-$32.95 at night; lansugarden.org/lunar-new-year
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