Snoqualmie Lunar New Year Celebration is coming to the Valley on Jan. 25.

The celebration will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the Snoqualmie YMCA Community Center (35018 SE Ridge St.).

The event will include a lion dance performance, fashion show presenting cultural attire and wide variety of vendors and food trucks. Other activities include paper lantern making, rat puppet making, origami making and games.

Lion dancers will be accepting red donation envelopes from attendees after a performance. They also will walk through Center Blvd. to collect red envelopes from local businesses. The Lion Dance is performed during the Chinese New Year to bring good fortune and to chase away evil spirits. The performance is believed to bring prosperity and good luck for the upcoming year.

The event was organized by three local realtors — Maggie Kelley, Stacy Hecht and Lexie Nguyen. The three women wanted to educate the community on the Chinese tradition and why it’s celebrated.

Kelley said the event is something they had thought about doing for at least two years. What first started as an idea has finally come to fruition this year. This will be the first Snoqualmie Lunar New Year Celebration the three women have hosted.

She said this is just the beginning and they want to see the community’s level of interest. The event is a way to pull the community together during the cold winter months.

“There are a lot of different cultures here in the Snoqualmie Valley, but not all have voice in the community quite yet,” she said. “[This event] will gain some exposure to different culture for everybody here… Come out and experience other cultures.”

The Chinese New Year, known as Lunar New Year globally, is a Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The year 2020 is the year of the Rat.

To learn more, visit www.facebook.com/SnoqualmieLunarNewYear/.