8th Annual East Meets West Christmas Parade Set for Today

Since 2008, the business leaders in the Lower Manhattan communities of Chinatown and Little Italy - The Chinatown Partnership and the Little Italy Merchants Association (LIMA) - have joined forces during the Christmas season in the spirit of peace and good will to celebrate the holidays by co-producing and presenting a colorful parade, aptly called The East Meets West Christmas Parade, that proceeds through the main streets of both communities on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas Day.

This year, The 8th Annual East Meets West Parade will take place today, December 19, 2015, at 1:00 PM, followed by a holiday Chinese musical performance on Mott Street in Chinatown, it was announced by Wellington Z. Chen, Executive Director of The Chinatown Partnership, and Robert Ianniello, Jr., President of LIMA.

In a joint statement, both business-oriented associations said: "Our diverse ethnic communities have lived side-by-side in harmony since the early 20th century, through good times and bad. Although our communities were settled by immigrants from different parts of the world, we are a microcosm of American democracy and New York City's 'Melting Pot' mentality. We have many shared experiences as Americans and this annual parade is our way of demonstrating the diversity and friendship of our two neighboring communities."

The Parade Details

The Parade will form at the corner of Canal and Mulberry Street at 12 Noon. There will be two Parade floats - one with Santa Claus and children, and a second float with musical performers, including dancers and singers. The Parade lineup will include; a color guard from Chinatown's American Legion Kimlau Post 1291, which will be at the front of the procession; two or three marching bands from Chinatown and Little Italy, including the Red Mike Italian Festival Band, a mainstay at festivals in Little Italy since 1927; a delegation of marchers from the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) Lt. Joseph Petrosino Lodge #285 in Little Italy; Lion and Dragon dancers; members of local associations, union locals, community groups from Chinatown and Little Italy; and celebrities and VIPS, etc.

There will be a Photo Op staged before the start of the Parade at 12:30 PM, featuring local, state and federal elected officials; local community leaders, and celebrity VIPs.

At 1 PM, the parade will step off from the intersection of Canal and Mulberry Sts and head north on Mulberry, through Little Italy, to Houston, where it will turn right for one block, then right again on Mott and head South into Chinatown until it ends at The Bowery and Worth St about 2:45 PM. There will be Chinese musical performers on a stage to be erected in front of the Transfiguration Church school at 29 Mott Street Between Pell and Mosco Streets. The event will begin with a brief ceremony followed by the musical entertainment that will begin at 3 PM and end at 4 PM.

`All the businesses in Chinatown and Little Italy will be open all day and many of the shops, restaurants and cafes will offer special sales, discounts and other holiday offerings. And the Lion Dancers will be performing on the streets of Chinatown until early evening.

Chinatown Partnership, led by Wellington Chen, was formed in 2006 as a new start-up from ground up to bring residents, business owners and community groups together to rebuild Chinatown following 9/11, and to preserve the neighborhood's unique culture while ensuring its vitality in the future through strategic positioning. With such successful initiatives as the highly popular Weekend Walks street festive series, Mid-Autumn Festival, annual events celebrating Beautification/Earth Day, Double Valentine's Day, the Jewelry District, and all the cafes and eateries in Chinatown, as well as the Explore Chinatown marketing initiative, Lunar Stages outdoor film screenings, the Taste of Chinatown street events, and the annual East Meets West Christmas Parade with Little Italy, Chinatown Partnership helps promote the area as a special destination to live, work, and visit.

In the last two-plus years, Chinatown Partnership has also been working with the Chinatown Business Improvement District to engage the community and lead efforts to improve the neighborhood's physical environment through the Clean Streets initiative, streetscape improve-ments, enhanced lighting gateways, and way-finding projects such as the NYC Dept. of Transportation's WalkNYC. During Superstorm Sandy and other destructive storms, the two organizations in conjunction with elected officials, have used the Chinatown Partnership offices as the Superstorm Relief and Coordination Center during the blackout and afterwards with private fundraising, language translation, etc. Just like the 2010 joint workshop with the Red Cross, people from all boroughs came in to attend the emergency workshops and to obtain several red Go bags. These are just a small sampling of what type of initiatives and groundwork that Chinatown has provided during the past ten years.

Little Italy Merchants Association (LIMA)
The Little Italy Merchants Association (LIMA) was created more than 25 years ago to represent the interests of the many Italian restaurants, cafes, and small businesses in the area which became a haven for millions of Italian immigrants in the early years of the 20th century who left their native land to start a new life for their families in the United States.. In addition to their dreams, these early immigrants, many of them from southern Italy, also brought their customs and deeply religious beliefs with them. LIMA was responsible for creating the Mulberry Street Pedestrian Mall in the early 1990s, which annually begins on Memorial Day and continues every weekend through Labor Day. During these weekends, Mulberry Street, the major shopping street in the community, is closed to vehicular traffic Fridays from 6 PM to 11 PM, and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to midnight.