Celebrations End

Well, the SF Chinese New Years parade has come and gone...again. This left me with a question about the length of celebration for Chinese New Year (sorry, I'm too old school to call it Lunar New Year)...How long do you celebrate CNY? Being born and raised in the streets of SF Chinatown, I've celebrated CNY whenever it comes (dates change due to the lunisolar calendar) and usually it ends with the grand CNY parade. This means that it can go beyond 15 days. Anyway, in our discussion, we wondered if we were raised elsewhere, how long would be really celebrate the new year?

This CNY came and went quickly. We really wanted to bring the kids out to see more lion dancing and other cultural stuff, but this really didn't happen to our liking. Things like weather and health prevented us from going out during the past couple of weeks.

Last week, we went to the zoo for the first time since Christmas (Yes, the same day as the Tiger incident). We renewed our membership as we do visit often. But, last Sunday, the zoo held a celebration for the new year and had crafts and performers. This year, we watched the Red Panda Acrobats and Leung's White Crane Lion Dance team. It was nice as Amy knew Wayne of the RPA and it was a rekindling of old friends and they were happy to see each other. Next up was the lion dance. They danced 2 lions, where they entered the audience and interacted with the kids before returning to the stage to finish their performance. Our daughter was a bit frightened at the beginning, but as we explained it more, she had a great time.

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to find parking in Chinatown to attend a performance by the SF Wushu Team. Parking was BAD as they were preparing for the parade, so practically all street parking was made illegal. But we were able to find a spot a block from the hotel and made it just in time to see them begin their wushu performance. Amy used to train and perform with this team. I had bad camera issues where all images came out too dark for some reason so I really don't have any to post. :( I really need to read the manual to learn the tricks. After the show, we went to say hi. We saw AnDers, Sifu Bryant Fong and Casskicksass. It's always a bit of a reunion for Amy and the kids liked it.

Next, we went to visit my uncle and aunt for the new years in my old hood. I'm such a slacker for putting this off, but feel good that we were able to see them with the kids. I'm so grateful to them for all that they've done for me in my life. After saying hi, the rain started to come so then it was home to settle in to watch the parade on TV. Gotta give the people in the parade a lot of credit to perform during the pouring rain and heavy wind while keeping that smile going. One thing that is funny is the bags over the lion heads...at times, it's like those balloons (sold at the parade, back in the day) where a bunny balloon is inside the bigger balloon. Anyway, the parade is always fun to see. We hope to get out there next year...depending on the weather. :)