Happy (Chinese) New Year

January 29, the first day of Chinese year4703, Year of the Dog, is the most celebrated holiday of the year for 1.5 million of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese descent in So. California.


Carolyn, Sara and I attended the 2006 Golden Dragon Parade in LA on February 4th, along with 110,000 others and saw a colorful celebration of SoCal's Asian-American community.


Marshall for the parade was LA Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. (You may have seen him in the news recently expressing surprise that President Bush was discussing two year old terrorist threats on LA without telling him.)


One of the things we learned was the belief that Chinese people are short is a myth.


Of all the parade components, the clear crowd favorite is the Chinese dragons.


Dragons are important in Chinese mythology, showing up in art, literature, poetry, architecture, and songs. Their origin is unknown and pre-date written history.



New Year's Day parade dragons are believed to repel evil spirits that would spoil the new year.


It was working for me until ...


... this guy gave it all away!


The Chinese version of Father Time was there.



There were sports stars...



... acrobats, ...

... and fierce martial artists.


But no parade is complete with out floats, flowers, and beauty queens.




People born in the Year of the Dog (1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 ) are honest and faithful to those they love but tend to be worrywarts and faultfinders. Dogs are strong believers in justice, and are fiercely loyal. They are man’s best friends, who never let you down. They are honest and generous to those they love, almost to a fault for they can sacrifice their own needs for the sake of others. Dogs can be non-materialistic crusaders; born with a strong sense of decency. Injustice and wrongdoing gets their fur up. Get in a Dog’s way and they will bark at you, although their tempers are normally short lived. Dogs can also be dogged, guarded, arrogant and defensive. A Dog finds it difficult to adapt to change, and never really relaxes. His is stubborn, and his heart and mind are always jumping, always chasing his tail. Dogs make an excellent businessman, activists, union leaders, priests, teachers, or secret agents. They are great team players, and can make excellent soldiers.