SOFIA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Veliko Turnovo, an ancient Bulgarian city with a history of over 6,000 years and the country's capital in the Middle Ages, on Sunday evening officially celebrated the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival.
The three-hour-long festivities, held in the building of the local music and drama theater under the title "Happy Chinese New Year", were jointly organized by the Chinese embassy in Bulgaria, Veliko Turnovo municipality and the Confucius Institute at the University of Veliko Turnovo.
The celebrations kicked off with a photo exhibition showing celebration of the Chinese New Year around the world -- from Washington in the United States, to Sydney in Australia and to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.
The audience also enjoyed demonstration of traditional Chinese crafts such as calligraphy, silk thread production and paper cutting.
The culmination of the festivities came an hour later when 40 dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy performed the Chinese Classical Dance "Fen Mo", which was warmly applauded by the audience.
It was the third leg of their European tour that also includes Poland, Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia.
Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria Zhang Haizhou said at the opening ceremony that the Spring Festival is one of the most important Chinese traditional holidays, and in recent years more and more countries have declared it their own state holiday.
Meanwhile, cultural exchanges between China and Bulgaria have steadily strengthened in recent years, and thanks to the cultural exchange, the two ancient countries of the Silk Road became more connected with each other, the ambassador said.
Snezhana Daneva-Ivanova, Deputy Mayor of Veliko Turnovo, said in turn that her city is officially celebrating the Chinese New Year for the second time, so it became almost a tradition.
Daneva-Ivanova said she was proud that Veliko Turnovo was one of only three Bulgarian cities that officially celebrated the Chinese Spring Festival. The other two were Sofia and Varna, she said.
In an interview with Xinhua, Daneva-Ivanova said the official celebration of the Chinese New Year in her city showed that Veliko Turnovo opened its doors to China.
"We hope that our cultural interaction will grow into an economic one, and we expect Chinese investments to come to Veliko Turnovo," she said.
Veliko Turnovo officially celebrated the Chinese Spring Festival for the first time in 2016. The city scheduled to celebrate it for the second time last year, but the festivities were canceled due to heavy snowfall and cold.
