Volunteers carrying this blue dragon. It was one of many long, sinuous dragons in the parade.
It seems that the weather luck of the Rose Parade also holds true for the annual Golden Dragon parade in L.A.’s Chinatown. I have been going to it for several years and it has never rained on the parade. This year on February 13th it was warm enough to wear shorts –although I didn’t!–and the umbrella sellers made out like bandits.
Warm sunny weather meant wearing shorts and sheltering under bright umbrellas. Few of the umbrellas this year were paper; more were made of shiny synthetic fabric.
Because I took so many photos this year, I’m going to split them into two parts. This is Part One and I’ll show you the parade itself. Part Two will be photographs taken around Chinatown before the parade began.
As usual, please read the captions.
One of three golden dragons in the parade. I think I saw this one in previous years. Unlike the Rose parade viewers can show up just as the parade begins and find seating on the curb.Another golden dragon in the parade and a proud mother taking a picture of her daughter carrying the dragon.The Chinese Historical Society usually carries flags and they did again this year. BUT these U.S. flag bearers were from a Rotary group.I think this is a deity figure. The costume and mask were amazing!The people escorting this group of costumed marchers were carrying the red flags of the Peoples Republic of China. The costumes were brilliant. I may do a separate post about them, but here they are as a group. The lady in blue jeans and yellow purse walked right through the middle of the group.As usual the San Gabriel Valley Chamber of Commerce showed up with their dragon and several lion dancers. More people of Chinese ancestry live in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles than in Chinatown which is near downtown L..A.Po, the Kung Fu Panda, drew the loudest applause of any participant in the parade. The kids loved him!What!? How did that food truck get into the parade, I thought. Well it turns out that Roy Choi, the innovative leader of the gourmet food truck movement, was named Honorary Grand Marshal of the parade this year. Before Choi, the hundreds of L.A. food trucks (which were commonly called ‘roach coaches’) were cheap and mostly sold Mexican food. Now food trucks serve expensive fusion finger food. McDonald’s was handing out free balloons for the children waiting for the parade to begin. Not far away Coke was giving away free samples of Coke Zero. There will be more to come about sights away from the parade in my next post.
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