Celebrate the Lunar New Year with a fundraiser for the ESEA Community Centre on Saturday 7th February including food, crafts, games, and more.
The Year of the Horse fundraiser is a day festival and market filled with food from ESEA chefs, arts, crafts, workshops and games like Pitch Pot, Bean Sorting Challenges and Ring Tossing. Money raised will go to supporting the ESEA Community Centre.
They are a charity dedicated to supporting the ESEA community local to Hackney, by providing a physical space that serves as a local hub for support with essential services and access to social, wellbeing and community activities.
The fundraiser will take place on Saturday, 7th of February running from 11:30 – 5:30. It will be followed by an evening special edition of Four Winds Mahjong Club.
During the day there will be a market, games, and crafts. There will also be a special lion dance performance, Pineapple Tar workshops, and Dumpling wrapping and eating during the day at set times. Highlights include Pitch Pot, a traditional Lunar New Year game, woodblock printing and paper cutting by Yi Crafts, a Song Dynasty tea workshop by Lotus Realm, and much more.
The fundraiser is organised by Yuru Guo and Kyra Zhang. Speaking to China Minutes, Yuru Guo reminisced on her memories of Chinese New Year explaining “As a child, Chinese New Year was the day I waited for all year. New clothes A table full of food. The whole family gathered together, making dumplings side by side.”
However, after living and working in the UK for 10 years “that version of Chinese New Year feels further away every year.”
Based on her experience as founder of Hey! Food is Ready, a company founded in food, culture, and community, she decided to do something that brought back that feelings of her childhood.
She concluded, “To create a space where people far from home can gather, eat laugh, and remember what it feels like to celebrate Chinese New Year.
“To bring people together and provide a space for people who want to celebrate and create a space for people who haven’t had a chance”.
Head to the ESEA Community Centre Instagram page to book tickets and find out more. If you like this article, why not read: Chinese New Year Events in London 2026
