Crowds of people jammed the streets to watch this once-a-year parade. The
air was filled with sounds of music, firecrackers, drums and…the soft
splish-splash of rain? Yes, there I was, standing out in the rain with my
family on a Saturday night, watching the Lunar New Year parade.
Why, you wonder, did I want to waste a perfectly good Saturday night just
to watch a parade that could easily (and more comfortably) be seen on TV?
To watch this in the freezing rain, no less: I must have been crazy! Well,
if I was out of my mind to do so, so were hundreds of other people who
plugged up the streets and sidewalks.
Well, the rain wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. The parade was
actually a lot of fun, even if I got all wet and had hat hair afterwards
from hiding my head in my hood.
We got to the parade fairly early, but even then, the sidewalks were
jammed with spectators and we had to push through the crowds to get within
decent viewing distance of the parade. Luckily, my cousins came along and
you know, they’re adorable little kids. So all they did was say, “Excuse
me please,” with innocent smiles on their faces, and acting like I was
babysitting them, I followed behind them. In moments, I had a good
viewpoint of the parade.
I liked the lion dances and the long, graceful dragons too, but you know
what I really liked? The pants the lion dancers wore! They're fuzzy!
Whenever a dragon or a lion came by close enough, people would reach out
and touch it. Everyone went mad whenever the people in the parade threw
red envelopes at us. Too bad all it contained was a piece of chocolate
gold coin and a business card. Where was the lucky money?!
I didn’t think there would be firecrackers since it was raining, but
thankfully, I was wrong. The loud and smoky firecrackers were followed by
the thundering New Year music of the drums and cymbals. It was fun seeing
all the cute, little kids performing and waving at the crowd.
The floats were all intricately decorated and very well-made. It really
did seem as though everyone put a lot of effort into making their float
the best one there would be. At one point, I almost got a mouthful of
confetti, but fortunately, I closed my mouth fast enough before the
confetti thrown by a float flew into my face. I liked the little kids
walking on stilts, dressed up in costumes as characters from the "Monkey
King." Whenever I see someone walking on stilts, I have an urge to try
it, but I think it'd be hard to walk on them. Another thing that comes to
my mind is what would happen if you were to trip and fall while wearing
them? x_X
The only thing about the rain that ruined the parade was that the
performers didn’t do much of what they should have done: performed. Most
of them just walked along the road, and we the audience occasionally got
so bored that shouts of “Do something!” were heard. This year’s parade
disappointed me for this reason. The fact that the rain kept clouding up
my glasses every few minutes was also an annoyance, but that didn’t bother
me too much.
What I regret was that we didn’t watch the parade at Union Square (I think
it was in Union Square(I think it was in Union Square...) instead because
when I saw the parade on TV, the lion dancers did much more interesting
tricks and it just seemed a whole lot better. Maybe it was because they
wanted to look good on TV or simply just because our spot was unlucky.
Coming back from the parade, there was a huge traffic jam since everyone
decided to leave at the same time. I’m sure it was just as crowded to
come, but we came by BART. (My sister and I got a ride in my cousins’ van
when leaving).
So why did I go to the parade? Well, it was kind of fun and it’s a
tradition for my family to go every year. For me, it is the experience of
standing there with the crowd and being able to view everything live. It
just isn’t the same as watching it on TV. The parade is a
once-in-a-lifetime experience in the way that no parade in the years to
come will ever be the same as this one. So if you don’t mind standing in
the rain for a couple of hours with wet clothes sticking to you, and the
long wait in the traffic jam, I would say you should go and watch this
parade live. So get your lazy butt off the couch and go be part of the
crowd next year!
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