SUPER SATURDAY IN CHINATOWN

 

Super Saturday in Chinatown NYC is one of the most vibrant lead-ups to Lunar New Year, centered in and around Chinatown, Manhattan. It typically takes place the Saturday before the main Lunar New Year Parade. The day features traditional lion dances weaving through storefronts to bring good fortune, drum corps performances, martial arts demonstrations, and cultural showcases. Local businesses open their doors for blessings, and the streets fill with the crackle of firecrackers meant to ward off evil spirits and usher in prosperity for the year ahead.

It is also a spiritual and economic ritual — a way for families, merchants, and community associations to start the year united and hopeful. You’ll often see elders offering red envelopes, children watching wide-eyed as lions “eat” lettuce for luck, and volunteers distributing commemorative banners. In a city as fast-paced as New York, Super Saturday transforms Chinatown into a living expression of heritage, resilience, and renewal — a reminder that Lunar New Year is not just a single parade day, but a season of tradition, gratitude, and collective celebration.

AWAKENING THE LIONS

 

The Lion Dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a lion's movements in lions' costumes to bring good luck and fortune. The lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year and other traditional, cultural and religious festivals.

I attended the February 17, 2026 celebration in Manhattan's Chinatown (mostly on Mott, Bayard and Pell streets). and despite the massive crowd, recorded some of the scenes documentary-style.

The Canal Street Hustle

Visitors are drawn to Canal Street by the promise of luxury bargains—such as “designer” bags, "Rolex" watches and "Gucci" sunglasses. The fake bags can be priced at just $50, despite its retail value often reaching thousands. Many of the vendors are from Senegal and Mali, while others are Chinese women. The former display the actual counterfeit goods spread on large carts or tarps, while the latter only carry laminated catalogs (to avoid arrest and confiscation).

Many tourists are unaware of the complex network behind this activity. Chinese wholesalers, hidden in the backrooms of souvenir shops, provide these items, obtaining them from factories in Guangdong province that produce high-quality replicas using smuggled authentic samples. These goods are transported via container ships to ports such as Newark, evading customs through mislabeled shipments or the involvement of corrupt officials.

The street-level sellers are mainly West African immigrants from Senegal and Mali, who work for local Chinese groups. It is estimated the counterfeit "industry" causes New York City alone to lose over $1 billion annually in tax revenue.

On a personal level, I'm not disturbed by these vendors , because I believe peddling fake copies of luxury goods are largely victimless "crimes". The Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel of this world may claim they are victimized, but buyers of fake copies couldn't buy the real ones....so they're not really losing revenue. In my view, the "victims" are the West African immigrants who have few options to make a living other than street peddling.

These photographs were all "shot" from the hip, using a remote cable, and were post processed using a Tri X-400 preset.