Celebrate Chinese New Year in San Francisco and Oakland, California

Chinese New Year is coming up in a hurry and if you intend to celebrate you better read this entire article, especially if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is once again time for the biggest holiday in the world.

This year the holiday of Chinese New Year will occur on a Sunday in the United States, and will just so happen be on the same date of Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010. That means you can knock out two big holidays in one day and you can do all of your shopping at one time for the gifts for these two holidays.

Chinese New Year has a very rich cultural history. For more information on this major international holiday, check out Wikipedia's excellent article on Chinese New Year at this Web page.

Another great source of information on Chinese New Year is History.com. Check out their great links and history articles.

If you plan on being in the San Francisco Bay Area in mid-February, you should definitely try to make time to celebrate Chinese New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown. You will see great and fun Chinese costumes, outfits and wonderful celebrations that you will never forget.

The big Chinese New Year parade, with all the costumes and intensity, is often more thrilling and exciting than Halloween. The costumes are scarier, more intense and often much, much bigger in height and width.

There are a number of Web sites that can help you plan your Chinese New Year celebration in San Francisco. First, go straight to chineseparade.com for spectacular information on Chinese New Year in the City by the Bay, or go to the FAQs page at this link for info on the big parade in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2010. Next, review the tips and info over at sfgate.com for all the details for the Lunar New Year excitement and fun.

Now don't think that San Francisco will have all the fun on this costume celebration and festival. Just across the bay in Oakland, you can find some cool and interesting dancers, contests, vendors and local singers and entertainers. The Oakland celebration is planned for Feb, 6-7 of 2010. More info can be found at this Web site.

Even if you do not know much about Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year, it is always wonderful to see dragon costumes, firecrackers and pretty red envelopes stuffed with money. The red envelopes are mostly given to young people, but you can bet the adults in the crowd would be happy to get one if they could.

Try not to let any governmental conflicts between the U.S. and China influence the joy and fun of Chinese New Year. Set politics aside for a few days and just enjoy Lunar New Year.

References

Chinese New Year, Wikipedia.org

Chinese New Year, History.com