Children perform martial arts during an event to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year at the Athens International Airport in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 6, 2019. The Athens International Airport and Air China organized the event featuring a martial arts show, a lottery and Chinese delicacies to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
ATHENS, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- An eye-dotting celebration to mark Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, was organized by the Athens International Airport and Air China on Wednesday.
To mark the occasion and celebrate with travellers, a giant pig mascot greeted everyone at the airport, as the year 2019 is the Year of the Pig, according to the Chinese Zodiac.
At the same time, passengers of Air China were caught by surprise at the boarding gate.
A special event was held featuring a martial art show, a lottery, Chinese delicacies and many gifts.
"We want to join the festivities of the Chinese Lunar New Year. We want to offer an experience and make you feel a bit like home before going to your country,"said Athens International Airport's director of communications and marketing, Ioanna Papadopoulou, wishing in Chinese "Chunjie kuaile" (Happy Chinese New Year).
The show kicked off by a dragon dance performed by Greek youth followed by martial art show.
Passengers of the flight had the opportunity to pick a name for the giant Chinese costumed character and win special gifts.
"Lucky Zhu" ("Zhu Lele"), as they named the mascot, will remain at the airport until the end of the festivities on Feb. 20.
"It's quite a big surprise to all our passengers and even to our crew. So, if they are not in their hometown, they feel homesick. But in Athens airport we decorated with the season's spirit of Chinese New Year. Everybody feels very happy about it. It's fantastic," Fan Heyun, Air China Chief Executive Officer in Athens, told Xinhua.
Fan explained that more events will be added to the calendar to make Greece more Chinese friendly as a country, along with more flights in the route.
"We will try to add more flights to this route," he stressed.
