Chinese New Year in Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum held an opening ceremony of a series of events Happy Chinese New Year @Baku.

Ms. Guo Min, Chinese Ambassador to Azerbaijan made a speech at the event attended by public figures and representatives of culture. She mentioned that the solemnly celebrated four-thousand-year Chinese spring holiday maintains many traditions and rituals. “During the Chinese Spring Festival, families gather together, prepare for the holiday a few days before, buy gifts, and make souvenirs with holiday symbols. Red paper lanterns decorate houses, streets, squares, and parks; people paint their doors and windows red, as well as make a firework display,” Ms. Guo Min said. Ambassador noted that more than a hundred countries worldwide celebrate Chinese New Year, which becomes their nation’s brand. She also emphasized the importance of the relationship with Azerbaijan and expressed her appreciation to the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum and Baku Confucius Institute for their support.

Later, guests watched a short movie about the Chinese Spring Festival. Musical program, Chinese national dances, and performances on Chinese national instruments accompanied the event.

Following that, guests attended the museum’s exhibition space to get acquainted with the Chinese history and culture, their national costumes, dolls, as well as photographs demonstrating beautiful views of China. Here, they got a chance to participate in the masterclasses on Chinese tea culture, making paper lanterns and bracelets in the macramé technique, and creating their own New Year cards with hieroglyphs.

These masterclasses led by teachers of Baku Confucius Institute will continue till January 18, 14:00-16:00. Participation in the event is free.

On top of that, the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum will organize a lecture on Chinese culture on January 11 at 14:00.

It should be noted that the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum works closely with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Azerbaijan and the museums of the PRC. In 2019, Azerbaijani carpets and other objects of Azerbaijani decorative and applied arts from the collections of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum were displayed in National Museum of China in Beijing, and later on the exhibition The Splendor of Asia – An Exhibition of Asian Civilizations in South China Sea Museum in Hainan. More than three million people visited the exhibition and got acquainted with Azerbaijani objects providing worldwide promotion of carpet art, the pearl of Azerbaijan culture.

A series of events Happy Chinese New Year @Baku will be another step towards strengthening cultural relations between the two countries.