El Paso Celebrates Lunar New Year with Vibrant Festival

Annual event features lion dances, martial arts, cultural performances, and family activities in Downtown.

Published on Mar. 2, 2026

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El Paso welcomed the Year of the Horse with a lively Lunar New Year celebration featuring traditional performances, hands-on activities, and an artisan market showcasing Asian-owned businesses. The festival, which has been held for nearly 150 years, brought together the city's diverse East and Southeast Asian communities to share their cultural traditions with all of El Paso.

Why it matters

The Lunar New Year celebration highlights El Paso's rich history of Asian American communities, dating back to the city's first Chinatown in the 1880s. The event helps preserve and promote these important cultural traditions while fostering cross-cultural exchange and understanding within the broader El Paso community.

The details

The Lunar New Year festivities included lion and dragon dances, martial arts demonstrations, student performances, and hands-on activities like learning to write in Chinese characters and making paper horse crafts. An artisan market featured Asian-owned businesses selling food and cultural items. A cultural procession through the Downtown Arts District symbolically scared away evil spirits while celebrating renewal, ancestry, and community.

  • The Lunar New Year celebration has been held in El Paso for almost 150 years.
  • This year's festival took place on Saturday, February 28, 2026.

The players

Nora Rose

Community outreach supervisor for the El Paso Museum of History.

Shinping 'Champagne' Chyi

Principal of the El Paso Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School.

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What they’re saying

“El Paso has a really rich East and Southeast Asian history. We actually had the first Chinatown in Texas, starting in the early 1880s with the arrival of the railroad. And Lunar New Year has been celebrated here for almost 150 years.”

— Nora Rose, Community outreach supervisor, El Paso Museum of History (elpasotimes.com)

“I'm very happy that people have the interest because learning a new language, it's a challenge. And Chinese is a very, very constructive, very logic. A very sentimental language.”

— Shinping 'Champagne' Chyi, Principal, El Paso Ai-Hwa Chinese Language School (elpasotimes.com)

What’s next

The El Paso Museum of History's 'A History of East and Southeast Asian Cultures' exhibit, which opened in September, will remain on display through January 2027, providing an opportunity for more residents to learn about the city's Asian American heritage.

The takeaway

El Paso's vibrant Lunar New Year celebration demonstrates the city's longstanding commitment to preserving and celebrating its diverse Asian American communities. By sharing cultural traditions, the event fosters cross-cultural understanding and strengthens the bonds within El Paso's broader community.