Gung Hay Fat Choy

Gung Hay Fat Choy- is Happy New Year in Chinese. Yesterday was the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. It's a tradition that started shortly after the Gold Rush as a means for educating people outside of Asia about the Chinese culture. Today, the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade has become one of the largest Asian celebrations outside of Asia.

Braving the wind and the rain, we went to the city with some of our good friends, the Andrews, to experience this Asian celebration for ourselves. You seriously can't get any better than egg rolls and pot stickers from a street vendor in China town. Plus, all the little kids dressed up as rats! This year is the year of the rat in the Chinese Zodiac calendar. I read that it is the start of the 12 years on the Zodiac calendar and often given pre-eminence. Tradition is that the rat was the first animal to respond when Buddha summoned all animals-therefore its place as the start of the lunar calendar. Since the rat is the start of the new year, it is believed to be lucky for new undertakings! So-get out there and make some New Year resolutions!

One of many streets vendors selling Chinese Food

It's too bad the rain caused many floats and Chinese dragons to be covered in plastic and was probably miserable for the participants but I tend to think the less than prime weather kept the streets less crowded, which was great for us! Despite the cold and rain, we loved it and enjoyed our evening with friends.

The parade was so dark that we edited the lighting in Photoshop so you could see. Now Nate is self-consious of his grey-looking hair.

Nate and Jaime in the Parade? Maybe next year....