DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanians has joined their Chinese friends in celebrating the upcoming Spring Festival with pomp and pageantry at the 2020 Happy Chinese New Year gala.
The Chinese Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the most important traditional festival in the Asian country.
The Chinese will usher in the Year of the Rat. In the Chinese zodiac, the rat symbolizes wit and dexterity, and it also symbolizes self-improvement in both diversity and adversity.
The colorful Happy Chinese New Year Celebrations have been held in Tanzania for 10 consecutive years, marking the arrival of the Lunar New Year.
Minister of State in the Vice-President Office (Environment) George Simbachawene said Tanzanians were happy to join Chinese in celebrating the 2020 Lunar New Year.
"We wish our Chinese friends a prosperous New Year because China and Tanzania are good friends and partners," said Simbachawene on behalf of Vice President Samia Hassan Suluhu.
Simbachawene praised China, with a total population of 1.4 billion, for pulling 700 million people out of poverty in the last 40 years.
He said Tanzania has to learn a lot from China when it came to fighting poverty and corruption.
"In recent years, mutual political trust between the two countries has deepened, and exchanges and cooperation between governments, political parties, and legislatures have become closer," said Simbachawene at the Chinese-built Julius Nyerere International Convention Center in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Wang Ke, the Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, said the Chinese Lunar Near Year was a time to celebrate, a time to reflect on the past year, and also a time to look ahead to the plans for the year ahead.
Wang said in the past 10 years, with the support and active participation of the Chinese communities in Tanzania and the Tanzanian people, a series of colorful Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations such as the Spring Festival temple fair, Chinese food festival, Chinese cultural exhibition, and cultural performances between China and Tanzania were held.
"These events have improved Tanzanian people's understanding of Chinese culture and provided Tanzanians with the opportunity to share the joy of the Chinese New Year," the Chinese envoy told her audience, including former Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda.
In recent years, she said, the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese communities in Tanzania jointly organized a lot of cultural activities with relevant departments of Tanzania to strengthen the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
