Did you think New Year festivities were done and dusted? Well, the best is yet to come because nobody celebrates quite like the Chinese.
In celebration of the Year of the Rabbit, Sun City is hosting a colourful spectacle from Friday to Sunday, 20 – 22 January 2023. The complex will transform into a sea of red and gold and all things oriental, lit up by Chinese lanterns and magnificent fireworks displays. Traditional lion dancers will snake their way through the resort.
The Rabbit, in Chinese culture, is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity, and 2023 is predicted to be ayear of hope.
“Every year, we pull out all the stops for our Chinese community to see in the New Year and to create lasting memories together,” says Sun City General Manager, Brett Hoppé. “We wish all our guests celebrating the Chinese New Year happiness and prosperity.”
Hotel guests will receive a welcome letter of good luck written in Mandarin, and green tea will greet them at the reception and guest relations desks. Fortune cookies and chocolate bunnies (aligned to the Year of the Rabbit) will await them in their rooms.
Throughout the world, Chinese New Year is marked by sumptuous feasts of meat, fish, seafood, duck, special dumplings, noodles, and other delicacies. Red envelopes filled with small gifts of food or sweets are also typically exchanged. Sun City’s hotels and restaurants will enter into the spirit of the celebration by adding a Chinese flavour to all breakfast buffets, including chopsticks and a Chinese tea area.
Lion and dragon dances are an integral part of any Chinese New Year celebration. Aggressive lion dancing, coupled with loud drumming and clashing cymbals, is thought to evict bad spirits. A symbol of luck for the New Year, a convoy of lion dancers will make their way through the complex, starting at The Palace and continue through to Cascades, Sun City Hotel, and Cabanas, before finally ending at Monkey Spring Plaza (Valley of Waves).
The Monkey Spring Plaza will be lit up by a Chinese fireworks display from 9pm. A Chinese invention, the first fireworks were bamboo stems filled with gunpowder. Today, New Year fireworks make for spectacular displays of shape, design, and colour.
It’s not just the Plaza that will burst into light – the Sun City Casino will also be transformed with bright lights, traditional entertainment, as well as complimentary Chinese tea, fortune cookies, and chocolate bunnies. Various activations across the weekend will make for a lucky start to the New Year. With eight being a traditional lucky number, eight winners on Saturday, will take away R500 cash in R100 brand-new notes in red envelopes over six hours of gaming fun.
You don’t have to be Chinese to celebrate. Join millions of people around the world in celebrating this colourful event and wishing each other “Slin Nen Fai Lok [Happy New Year]!”.
