Chinese Lunar Parade in the City - Dragons galore

We heard that it won't be raining on Saturday night. Since we've been confined inside the house the entire day either doing house chores or catching up at work, we decided to brave the cold and step outside to watch the Chinese Lunar Parade in downtown. Besides, it is always fun to watch this parade and it has been ages since the last time we saw it in person.

It is the Year of the Dragon so what do you expect? Of course, dragons and there were lots of them. Here are the ones that we liked because of their size, color, lighting effects, and movement.

This is supposed to be the mother of all dragons that night. It is over 250 feet in length and it is bathed in red and yellow lights. It gleams while it moves. We saw this by chance on our way back home. Earlier that evening, we maxed out watching the parade because it started getting really cold. After getting hot chocolate at a nearby cafe, we heard this loud popping sound of firecrackers while walking down  toward the Montgomery BART station. We followed the smoke and saw this huge dragon. How lucky was that? The picture on the right is the tail end of the dragon.



This dragon on the left is one of the biggest dragons in the parade. You could see its big round lit eyes and lit pangs even from afar. We also got lucky because the dragon passed by us during the parade. The contingent and floats usually just stay in the middle of the route. This dragon on the right  was fast. The head and body are well lit too. As you can see, my camera even captured its movement. It was also skinny which made it look long. The parade has already started when we got to downtown. We kept walking down on Kearny St. until we saw an area where the crowd was thin. We stood behind a family with a toddler. This is when we got opportunistic. We knew that the little toddler will get tired sooner or later and the plan was to get their spot. A few minutes later, they decided it was time to go. The timing of their departure was perfect! Of course, the parade was not all about dragons. The other highlight were the different local schools that sent contingents composed of kids dressed in traditional Chinese outfit. Some local companies also brought in contingents playing traditional Chinese music, performing traditional Chinese dance and martial arts.

It is always a delight to see this parade upclose... especially when it doesn't rain.

~rl