Chinese New Year

March 9, 2010 by Nergene Arquelada 

On February 20th, I went to the Chinese New Year celebration in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.  I was a little worried because of the rainy weather on the night before, but it turned out to be a very nice day.  It was the second year that I’ve attended this.  Since last year was the  first time that I went, I missed out on a lot of things.  So, this year, I arrived a bit earlier and was able to look at the festival portion of this event.  It was fairly standard stuff.  There was a main stage that featured plenty of local entertainment.  Like many Asian events, there were many East Asian countries that were represented in the festivities.  It wasn’t just limited to Chinese entertainment and culture.  The main event of the day was the Golden Dragon Parade.  It’s a very large parade.  I’ve seen the parades at Nisei Week and the LA Korean Festival and this is probably the largest parade I’ve seen for any of the cultural events that I regularly go to.  It’s also the best attended.  There aren’t a lot of empty spaces on the sidewalk during the parade.  It’s really a great sight to see.  Since it was the year of the tiger, every float seemed to have at least one tiger prominently displayed.  There are plenty of lions and dragons as well.  It’s also not just and Asian-themed parade.  There are groups represented from all parts of the city.  There are some things in this parade that you wouldn’t expect to find in a Chinese New Year parade.

Unlike last year, where I left as soon as the parade was over, I actually took some time to walk through the neighborhood and found a few interesting sights.  I’ve lived in Los Angeles for awhile, but I rarely visit Chinatown.  I visit Little Tokyo frequently, but Chinatown is just a short walk.  Sometimes, I forget that I live in such a great city that has so much to offer.  I would definitely love to visit Chinatown more often, but then again, that’s what I said after attending last year’s Chinese New Year festival.