By Patricia Hall, FairfaxFamilyFun.com Happy New Year! Not the one that just passed -- but the one that is coming up! Each year in Northern Virginia and the metropolitan Washington, DC, area there are several festivals to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Commonly called Chinese New Year, several countries and cultures actually celebrate the holiday. The Vietnamese community, which hosts Tet events for the Vietnamese New Year, also celebrates in Continue Reading...
Kennedy Center REACH hosts free winter lantern display
The New Year is weeks past and so is the holiday season, with all its pretty lights displays, right? Not quite! In celebration of the upcoming Lunar New Year, the Kennedy Center is hosting an Asian Winter Lanterns exhibit that features thousands of lights that create stunning pieces of art. Best of all, the winter lanterns display is free! About The REACH In September 2019, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, debuted The REACH, its first Continue Reading...
See the world at embassy open house day!
By Patricia Hall, Fairfax Family Fun Living so close to the nation's capital has some distinct advantages, one of them being the ability to meet people truly from all over the world. And there is no better time to do this than during the annual "Around the World Embassy Tour" (AWET). This festival, which happens each spring, is open to the public, highly educational and fun, and completely free. AWET happens this year on Saturday, May 4, Continue Reading...
The year of the pig: Lunar New Year is coming up!
Celebrations of the new year aren't over when the January 1st has come and gone. For some people around the world, the traditional new year won't happen for another few weeks: Lunar New Year (sometimes called Chinese New Year) is coming up soon! This year (4717 in the Chinese lunar calendar) is the “Year of the Pig” (or sometimes called The Year of the Boar) and it begins on February 5, 2019. With a sizable Asian population in the Northern Continue Reading...
One Loudoun all aglow with LightUP Fest
Thanks to LightUP Fest for inviting us on a media preview! By Patricia Hall, Fairfax Family Fun LightUP Fest, the largest lights festival on the East Coast, is brightening the holiday season at One Loudoun in Ashburn, Virginia. The season-long festival brings dozens of installations, with more than one million lights, to One Loudoun in Loudoun County November 8, 2018 through January 2, 2019. The culture-rich lights exhibit that Continue Reading...
P. F. Chang’s free Crispy Honey Chicken offer is back!
It's back! The great offer that P.F. Chang's had this spring is back: free Crispy Honey Chicken! If you have been to a P.F. Chang's restaurant before, you already know the food is great: fresh, tasty, and nicely presented. We have enjoyed their appetizers (the lettuce wraps are great), entrees, drinks, and desserts and we always hope to try something new, but someone the Crispy Honey Chicken always seems to end up at our table. I know we're Continue Reading...
Persian New Year celebrations
Happy New Year! The local Persian community soon will be celebrating the start of a traditional new year. Norwuz (one of several spellings) marks the first day of spring and is an Iranian cultural holiday that followers of different religions celebrate. The holiday is known as the Iranian New Year or Persian New Year but is celebrated by people in various parts of the Middle East and Asia. It's a festive occasion that marks the new year and Continue Reading...
Where to celebrate the Chinese or Lunar New Year
By Patricia Hall, FairfaxFamilyFun.com Happy New Year! Not the one that just passed -- but the one that is coming up! Each year in Northern Virginia and the metropolitan Washington, DC, area there are several festivals to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Commonly called Chinese New Year, several countries and cultures actually celebrate the holiday, such as the Vietnamese, who host Tet events for the Vietnamese New Year. Some of the Continue Reading...