1. Celebrate the year of the ram in the Heights. The annual Lunar Year celebration is being hosted by the Heights Merchants Association on Saturday, between noon and 3 p.m. Hastings Street will come alive with music and dance! Colourful lions will perform special blessings to bring luck to local businesses. If you happen to be shopping in the area, you may even receive a fortune cookie and a red envelope containing a special message. Don’t miss out! Who knows, you may even win a Heights gift certificate.
2. Head over to the Burnaby Art Gallery for a special exhibit showcasing Chinese export water-colour painting. This unique genre took form when Chinese artists began learning from their western counterparts, and then started shipping their work out-of-country. This is your chance to explore the influential role western art traditions had on Chinese export paintings. The exhibition, curated by Barry Till, runs Sunday from noon until 5 p.m. A donation of $5 is suggested.
3. Take in an opera at the Shadbolt Centre. Follow the tale of Madama Butterfly and Cio-Cio-San, a young geisha who falls in love and marries an American naval lieutenant named B.F. Pinkerton. The pair is apart for three long years, with Pinkerton in America and Cio-Cio-San raising their young son. After reuniting with his family, Pinkerton decides to take his son back across the pond. The story is bound to pull at your heart strings with all its elements of love, betrayal and the clashing of two cultures in the late 1890’s. Watch as Giacomo Puccini and his Burnaby Lyric Opera production team, in combination with the best of B.C.’s young opera singers, bring this ‘must see’ to life. The show, which will be sung in Italian with English surtitles, runs from 8 p.m. to 10 on Saturday. Tickets range from $27 to $35. For more information, call 604-205-3000.
4. Take your little ones to Lougheed Town Centre on Saturday for storytime. Starting at 10:30 a.m., the one-hour event promises to be interactive for everyone involved! With a craft activity afterwards, kids will be able to take something home. And don’t worry, coffee will be provided. Participants are asked to meet out in front of London Drugs. Admission is free.
5. Cheer on the AAA girls' basketball teams as they go for gold on Sunday. The championship match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Massey Gym inside New Westminster Secondary School. Burnaby district schools are still in the running for the top prize.
