Far East Plaza

Far East Plaza. Chinese New Year Celebrations. , Dragons On Parade , Nothing in Western culture compares to the celebration of Chinese New Year, which is why each year 50,000 spectators gather along North Broadway to join in the festivities and watch the Golden Dragon Parade. The first local public celebration of Chinese New Year dates back to the 1894 La Fiesta de Los Angeles parade, which featured a dragon procession that was nearly a block long. (Unlike the ferocious dragon of Western medieval times, the Eastern dragon is a beneficent symbol of strength and goodness) The group was such a hit that the Fiesta committee immediately asked the Chinese community to come back the following year. Today, La Fiesta - also known as the Fiesta de las Flores - has become LA Fiesta Broadway to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, while in Chinatown New Year's festivities continue to grow and evolve. , In 1956, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce began sponsoring the selection of Miss Chinatown and her court. New dragonheads were imported from Hong Kong, and local family association members were hired to perform cultural dances. In the early 1960s, the lion and dragon dancers visited every Chinese business along the parade route. Shopkeepers dangled sticks laden with oranges, lisee (gold-embossed red envelopes filled with lucky money), and lettuce leaves to entice the beasts to snap at the bait. With the influx of new immigrants from Southeast Asia in the 1970s, the parade has become a focal point for community participation and celebration, boasting floats, multiple marching bands, and cultural groups. Grand Marshals have included Bruce Lee, David Carradine, Keye Luke, Hugh Hefner, Lindsay Wagner, Dr. Haing Ngor, and Kieu Chinh. , Gung Hay Fat Choy , At its heart, Chinese New Year is a time for family and traditions. Some families devote many weeks to preparations: debts are paid, old clothes thrown out, houses cleaned. A week before the final festivities begin, a volley of firecrackers is set off, symbolizing the kitchen god's return to Heaven to report on the family's activities. To assure that the Jade Emperor will get a favorable review, families set out sticky rice cakes to seal the kitchen god's mouth or at least ensure that his words will be sweet. The kitchen god returns in time, for the lavish New Year's Eve banquet, but before anyone can eat, the meal must be offered first to the family's ancestral spirits, who are thanked for the gift of life and asked for their blessings. To this end, an altar is prepared with incense and red candles. Oranges are offered to bring future wealth and luck, tangerines for good fortune, apples for peace, and flowers for prosperity. , Even the meal has special meaning. The Cantonese word for lettuce, sang choy, sounds like the word for "prosperity." Dried oysters, ho-see, sounds like "good moments." The name for sticky rice cakes suggests "getting higher," implying the possibility of future promotion. And the word for seaweed, fa-choy, sounds like the last two words of Gung Hay Fat Choy, the common phrase for "Happy New Year and Future Prosperity."