Bay Area Abounds with Lunar New Year Celebrations

In the Bay Area, Lunar New Year's is almost as widely celebrated as the mainstream New Year's. This lunar year, starting Feb. 3, brings many festive weekend events as always. If you are up for a cultural day trip, there are quite a number of choices.

Oakland Lunar New Year's Festival: The Oakland Asian Cultural Center will include elements of Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, Vietnamese and Filipino cultures in its celebration of Lunar New Year's at 388 Ninth St., Suite 290, second floor, Feb. 12, 12-4 p.m. The free event will present demonstrations of fruit carving, Chinese calligraphy and brush painting as well as performances by the center's teachers and their students. For program details, click here.

Vietnamese Tet Festival in San Jose: Tet means "new year" in Vietnamese. Lunar New Year's originated in China but is a Vietnamese holiday as well. Both Chinese and Vietnamese calendars have 12 animals that take turns representing a year, and they share 11 animals, but the Chinese Year of the Rabbit is the Vietnamese Year of the Cat this year.

A grand festival celebrating the cat year will take place at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road, San Jose, on Feb. 5 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m and Feb. 6 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is the largest overseas Vietnamese annual event worldwide. It presents over 100 programs and draws 40,000 to 70,000 attendees every year. For detailed information about its programs, click here. 

Redwood City's first celebration of Lunar New Year's: This is the first time for Redwood City to hold a Lunar New Year's festival at its Courthouse Plaza. The free event will feature Chinese lion dancers, the Red Panda Acrobats, and martial arts demonstrations Feb. 5 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Participants can also learn to say simple Chinese words, practice how to use chopsticks by picking up foods with auspicious meanings, make paper boats from chopsticks wrappers and play Mahjong or Chinese chess. Additional information is available online.

Lunar New Year celebration at San Leandro Library: All free and all part of The Joy Luck Club Big Read program. The library is hosting on Saturday, Feb. 5, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., performances of lion dancers, Vietnamese folk dancers and martial arts demonstrators of Vovinam Viet-Do-Dao of San Jose, world-famous magician Chin-Chin and a storytelling of Amy Tan’s Moon Lady. The fun continues with Ms. Wei’s Chinese Children Dancers of the San Leandro Marina Community Center, the Young Swallows Orchestra of the Chinese Christian School, celebrated child singer Flora Hui and the Thai Classical Dancers of the Wat Buddhapradeep Temple in San Bruno. 

Additionally, Asian arts and crafts sessions will be hosted for free by the Asian Community Cultural Association of San Leandro. Performances are free, but beverages and Asian food are available for purchase. The library is located at 300 Estudillo Ave., San Leandro. Call 510-577-3971 for more details.

Acrobats of China at Flint Center in Cupertino: A world-class performance by the acclaimed Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe of China begins at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 11. The awe-inspiring troupe is a top award-winning group and has snagged France's President's Prize for the Tomorrow Acrobatics Festival, the Golden Clown Award for the Monte Carlo Circus Festival and first prize for the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships. Learn more here.

Chinese Spring Festival Gala at Flint Center in Cupertino: Acrobatics and various Chinese performing arts, which will include a showcase of folk songs of China's minority ethnic groups (including Tibetan songs), folk dances, kung-fu, sonorous drumming and acrobatic stunts similar to those presented by Acrobats of China. The Chinese Spring Festival Gala starts at 7:30 p.m on Feb. 12, and at 2 p.m on Feb. 13. For ticket information about all the February performances at Flint Center,click here.

Lantern Festival in Santa Clara: The 15th day of Lunar New Year's marks the first full moon of the lunar year, and the Chinese traditionally celebrate it with exhibitions of lanterns that make the full-moon night even brighter.

Lantern festivals are rarely seen outside of China and Taiwan, but there will be one at Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara Feb. 12 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m, sponsored by the South Bay Taiwanese Association.

During an exhibition of colorful lanterns, there will be dance performances as well as a demonstration of how to make a rabbit-shaped lantern in celebration of the Year of the Rabbit.

There will also be teachers showing children how to make sweet rice balls, the quintessential dessert for the Lantern Festival, from scratch. The hotel kitchen staff will cook the sweet rice balls for all participants of the event. The dessert will follow a buffet lunch, both included in the ticket prices, $25 per adult and $5 per child in advance, or $35 per adult and $15 per child at door. To purchase tickets, e-mail pishun8@yahoo.com.

Chinese New Year's Festival and Parade in San Francisco: The San Francico parade started in the 1860s and has grown into the largest celebration of Asian culture outside of Asia.

This year over 100 units will present colorful floats, elaborate costumes, ferocious lion dances and exploding firecrackers. The newly crowned Miss Chinatown U.S.A. will show up with her court. It is one of the few remaining illuminated nighttime parades in America.

If you find it interesting but don't feel like driving all the way to San Francisco, you can watch it on KTVU Fox 2 or KTSF Channel 26 on Feb. 19, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Chinatown Community Street Fair: San Francisco Chinatown will hold a street fair on the weekend of the parade, Feb. 19 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Feb. 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Attendance at the two-day fair has averaged 500,000 and is estimated to be on the same scale this year. The fair will feature lantern and kite making, calligraphy, fine arts demonstrations, folk dance, and puppet shows. All the activities will take place on Grant Avenue from Clay to Broadway, on Pacific Avenue from Kearny to Stockton, and on Jackson Street from Kearny to Stockton.