Carson museums host Chinese New Year on Saturday

The Nevada State Museum and the Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada in Carson City will host a Chinese New Year Celebration starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Festivities begin in the park in front of the Nevada State Museum, Carson City with crafts and traditional Chinese dances. Everyone is invited to then follow the lion dancers as they parade down Carson St. to the Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada. There, the celebration continues with activities and events in the afternoon.

Chinese New Year is the most important and the longest celebration on the Chinese calendar. People from China have lived in Nevada as early as 1851 when Nevada was part of Utah Territory. In 1860, the Dayton area was marked on maps as “Chinatown”. The museum holds extensive collections from several Chinese settlements throughout Nevada. The museum will highlight a few of these objects during the Feb. 5 program. 

“We look forward to offering this event every year,” Myron Freedman, Administrator of the Nevada Division of Museums and History, said. “This program brings life to Chinese cultural objects displayed in our exhibits. Imagine a Chinese New Year parade marching through our scale model of 19^th century Winnemucca’s Chinatown in our History Gallery.”

The museum is at 600 N. Carson St. in Carson City. Face coverings must be worn inside the museum by all visitors. 

Regular museum admission is $10 adults and free for members and children ages 17 and younger. If people want to enjoy this program from the comfort of their own homes, it will also be streamed live on Facebook. This program is funded in part by a grant from Nevada Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.