Completely by accident, we ended up in Chinatown during the Chinese New Year festivities. Were seeking only to peruse interesting shops and even more interesting meat markets, to grab a cup of tea and maybe some noodles; we were alarmed to step off of the metro into a huge throng of people dressed in bright colors setting off firecrackers and yelling “gung hei faat choi!” in our faces. Knowing now that it simply means “congratulations and be prosperous,” looking back on our startled confusion seems amusing.
It looked like our day of quiet puttering was out; but since we were there, we thought, what the hell? So we followed a bunch of revelers doing the locomotion under a paper-mache dragon to the main event: a parade down the main street of LA’s Chinatown, complete with fire, dragons, dancers, kung-fu artists, Miss Teen Asia, and mayor Antonio Villaraigosa himself (dressed in a traditional outfit and yelling blessings in Chinese… very funny).
A man ushers his grandson off of the road as confetti from a festive firecracker scatters around them.
Police horses are having fun too!
Dragon dancers of every color… red and yellow shown here.
Twin dragons jut out from the front of a car like ramming prongs on an ancient warship.
(Chinatown, get off Metro Gold Line at Chinatown station).
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