FLORENCE — More than 400,000 firecrackers exploded in broad daylight Saturday — ignited to scare away bad luck and attract the good as the Cathay Kitchen again helped Kentuckians ring in the Chinese New Year.

        Feb. 12 marked the beginning of the Year of the Horse in the Chinese lunar calendar, replacing the Year of the Snake.

        The traditional Chinese New Year's celebration lasts 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival.

TRADITIONS

• Everyone cleans house to scour away any ill fortune before New Year's Day.     • No one cleans on New Year's Day because good fortune may be swept away.     • Visit family and friends.     • End old grudges.     • Debts from old year should be repaid.     • Ancestors are remembered.     • Pray for health and good fortune.     • Red is key color, bright future, joy and luck.

        For the Florence celebration, Cathay owners Raymond and Louisa Luk set up the 400,000-firecracker string created by the Rozzi family, the makers of the Toyota/WEBN Riverfest fireworks, in the restaurant's parking lot.

        Florence Mayor Diane Ewing Whalen lit one of the four fuses on the string.

        Cathay Kitchen has been hosting a Chinese New Year festival since the Year of the Tiger in 1998.

        Mr. and Mrs. Luk, both Hong Kong natives, said that the Florence celebration is like the traditional one in Hong Kong, except that in China, controls have been put on the firecrackers.

        After the firecrackers, the Cathay hosted two buffet lunches of original Cantonese New Year's festival foods.

        Sweets traditionally signify good omens for the New Year. Cathay is offering Lucky Candy, sweet coconut slices and sweet lotus seed, which are eaten to promote fertility in the coming year, Mr. Luk said.

        Cathay normally serves Cantonese cuisine, what Mr. Luk calls the “apex” of Chinese cooking.

        For the New Year celebration, the main dishes include roast pig, a dish that Mrs. Luk said is traditionally taken to Buddhist temples to ask the gods for good fortune.

        Decorations include traditional red couplet wall hangings with wishes for the New Year, including welcoming in the four seasons and the four directions of the earth. Flowers are placed around the restaurant to promote good energy flow.

        The Luks are enthusiastic about being a part of Florence.

        In 1997, Mr. Luk was the Grand Marshal for the Florence Y'all Labor Day parade. Both he and his wife visit several Boone County schools annually for cooking and cultural demonstrations.

        Mayor Whalen, a regular at Cathay and its New Year's celebrations, said that Cathay is more than a restaurant.

        “They are a part of the community. They stay involved in what's going on in town. Mr. Luk immigrated here in 1986.”

        “We miss our heritage, but we call it home here,” Mr. Luk said. I believe America is a big melting pot. You just want to share your culture with the big melting pot.”
       

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