NYE In Oriental
- Jan 5, 2018
- 2 min read
Bye 2017. Hello 2018.
In case you didn't know, my family is a little rowdy and our family tradition is to go down to Oriental, North Carolina to parade through the street chasing a giant Chinese dragon while banging pots and pans. Yes, you read that correctly.
If you haven't read my previous article about Oriental, you should, but my quick explanation of this town is that its a drinking town with a sailing problem. That's also the town motto. A lot of my family members either live or have vacation homes in this town since its a very quiet town on the coast of North Carolina and on New Year's Eve, this town has a very strange tradition.
Every NYE, the folks in Oriental put on a festival of sorts. They hang a croaker fish (its really a big metal fish with Christmas lights, but it used to be a real fish), over the marina and drop it at midnight. But that's not all.
Note: The story that I am about to tell is my best recollection of what my Uncle Greg told me so for all I know, he totally bullish*t it to me.
So the local theater group in Oriental some how gained a giant Chinese dragon. I don't know if it was a member's dragon from a trip or if the group somehow obtained it. I don't know, but I do know that this group decided to take the dragon and parade it through the street of Oriental and all the townspeople would come together and join in. It is also rumored that touching the dragon was good luck.
The other big event of the weekend is the giant firework display. My Uncle Mike and Aunt Mara recently renovated the house next to my Aunt Dot and Uncle Greg, and to kick off their first NYE in Oriental, Uncle Mike when overboard with fireworks. And he left the lighting of the fireworks up to a bunch of college students, which is probably why we ended up catching some stuff on fire.
The entire weekend wrapped up 2017 in the best way possible and I am so glad I got to spend it surround by my family and most importantly Keenan, who managed to survive the whole weekend. If you want to see more from the weekend, check out my Instastory that I have pinned on my Instagram!!
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