Leemisa Thuseho
THE Chinese Embassy in Lesotho hosted a celebration of the Chinese New Year at its embassy premises in Maseru yesterday.
Chinese New Year also known as Lunar New Year, is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival.
The lunar calendar in China follows the astrological signs and uses a twelve-year cycle with each year associated with an animal. This year the New Year is associated with the mythical dragon. The dragon in Chinese mythology symbolizes strength, power, wisdom, good fortune, and success.
The Chinese New Year of 2024 falls on 10th February and will last until 24th February 2024.
To mark the start of the celebrations and welcome the new year, the Chinese Embassy in Lesotho hosted a China-Lesotho youth get-together which saw activities such as the China traditional food making, calligraphy, guessing lantern riddles, traditional performances, and question and answer session to celebrate the momentous occasion.
In his remarks at the event, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Kingdom of Lesotho, His Excellency Mr Lei Kezhong, wished everyone a happy and prosperous year of the “dragon”.
He said they were going to organise a series of gatherings and interactions with Basotho youth.
“The Chinese Embassy is going to organise more gatherings and interactions with our Basotho youth,” Mr Kezhong said.
“This will be in an effort to promote our mutual understanding, cultural exchanges, friendship and cooperation as well as to provide support and assistance wherever possible…This is because the youth are the future of the world.”
The ambassador used the opportunity to highlight China-Lesotho relations which the two countries have maintained for over three decades now.
He said China-Lesotho relations were based on principles of equality, mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and a win-win cooperation attitude.
“China and Lesotho have maintained friendly and cooperative relations for three decades. In the bilateral area, we have sound cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, food security, renewable energy, scholarships and capacity building, and trade.”
He said on the international arena, the two countries stood for the respect of countries’ individual sovereignty.
He added this year marks the 30th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Lesotho.
“This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Lesotho. The two sides are ready to work together to take the anniversary as a new starting point to further upgrade bilateral relations, expand practical cooperation and achieve greater development of the China-Lesotho friendly cooperation relations,” Mr Kezhong said.
