Each Lunar New Year food and decoration has its own meaning. The word for tangerine orange, for example, sounds similar to the word "fortune" in Chinese and signifies good luck. Fish on the dinner table is another good luck symbol-"fish" in Chinese is a homonym with "plentiful." Want your children to grow strong and tall? Feed them rice cakes, which is yet another sound-alike for "annual growth." Want to meet that special someone in the upcoming year? Buy yourself some peach blossoms, a bringer of romances in Chinese floriography.

The Lunar New Year is also an occasion to celebrate and share laughter with loved ones. A few days before the new year, families would go out together to visit the flower festival, a traditional outdoor market that offers a wide variety of Lunar New Year-related goods and myriad festive celebrations. No one leaves the festival empty-handed: fathers will have good-luck plants in tow, mothers with new clothes, and children with candy. All leave with smiles.

This year, Asian Americans for Equality and United East Athletics Association are bringing the flower festival into New York City's Chinatown. Held at the Sara D. Roosevelt Park on February 12 and 13, the New York Lunar New Year Flower Festival will rival the largest and most bustling flower festivals held in Asia's biggest cities and expects to draw crowds of over 150,000. The event will center on the five main themes of the Lunar New Year: Peace, Prosperity, Good Luck, Beauty, and Longevity. Over 50 booths will feature merchandises for the New Year. A ribbon-cutting ceremony on the first day of the festival will inaugurate the largest Lunar New Year celebration in all of New York City.

The focal point of the event will be its festive cultural celebrations. Inside the 10,000 square feet tent will be a special room decorated like a traditional Asian household on New Year's Day. Visitors will get to learn the meaning behind each piece of decoration and will get to take home with them a piece of the festivity in the form of a souvenir photo. There will also be cultural performances throughout the two days of the event: Come see dances by students from a local school. Witness first-hand the stunning talents of Chinese opera's Face Changers. Sample Lunar New Year merchandises and snacks that Asians throughout the world partake in common celebration.

The New York Lunar New Year Flower Festival promises to be an unforgettable event to usher in the Year of the Tiger. Come for the flowers, the cultural performances, the merchandises-and stay for the fun!