Dragons will celebrate the year of the tiger at Argyle Lunar New Year Parade

Enter the year of the tiger during the annual Argyle Street Lunar New Year parade  in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Chinese New Year was already celebrated in the Chinatown community but the Asia on Argyle district holds its parade the week after, so revelers can attend both.  Experience the vivid colors and sounds of a traditional Chinese New Year’s celebration with dragon dances, lion dances, elaborate  floats, martial arts teams and a marching band.  And for the first time in years, all important firecrackers will deliver the bang in the festivities. Firecrackers are illegal in Chicago unless a licensed pyrotechnic company and permits are used.  The organizing committee went the extra mile to make sure that firecrackers can be used to push out the bad spirits of the old year and usher in the good, new ones. Read More »

UpTake on The Golden Gate

UpTake on Chinese New Year

UpTake on the US Capital Rotunda

UpTake on Temple of Olympian Zeus

UpTake on the Eiffel Tower

UpTake on the Empire State Building

UpTake on Hawaii

UpTake on Canadian Flag

UpTake on Indianapolis War Memorial

UpTake on Bourbon Street

Hello Readers! Here is a review of UpTake’s new blog series, ‘Things Are Looking Up!” We like to view the world with a little different perspective. Try it: Stretch your neck, gaze directly UP and TAKE a moment for yourself and all that is above you. It could be the Eiffel Tower, a flag waving in the air, a flock of birds or a light fixture. Whatever it is, literally and figuratively, have an ‘UpTake‘ today!

Better yet, if you have a camera, take a snap and send it our way, we would love to post it!

Find out more about the UpTakes above: Golden Gate Bridge; Chinese New Year; US Capitol Building; Temple of the Oympian Zeus in Greece; The Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building; Hawaii; Vancouver, British Columbia; Indianapolis War Memorial; New Orleans

UpTake on Chinese New Year

MY-Oh-MY!!! do we have a weekend ahead of us! I am in a tizzy with all the festivities that are happening the next couple of days.  I am not sure what to UP and TAKE advantage of! Maybe everything here…..

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Today begins the celebration of Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, and the Year of the Rat. Based on the cycles of the moon, Lunar New Year is traditionally focused on family and remembering ancestors. Famous folks born in the Year of the Rat include Mozart, Marlon Brando and Gwyneth Paltrow. Lunar New Year is celebrated many different ways, and if you decide to go out or stay in, there is something for you!
Check out Min’s blog for her plans for CNY – this year she is cooking the big dinner herself! Shar Scott from Planaganza has some great ideas on how to organize yourself to throw a Chinese New Year’s party of your own. Some of our travel blogger friends have written about their plans from around the world. Globetrotteri wishes us Happy New Year from Hualian, Tiawan; GoVisitHawaii has put together an excellent list of ideas for celebrating in Oahu; Peter from PulauPangkor talks about his plans in Kuala Kurau; and Beth Whitman of the SeattlePI has written about Tet (Vietnamese New Year) festivities planned in Seattle. (psst…I found all these blog posts using our new travel blog search tool!)

In Silicon Valley, my friend Cam Chan describes her plans for celebrating:

My family and I are planning to celebrate Tet (Vietnamese New Year) and Chinese New Year pretty much the same way that we have celebrated it since I moved to the Bay Area 10 years ago. I am Vietnamese and my husband is Chinese, so we try to incorporate a little of each tradition. I will purchase several banh tet (Vietnamese savory rice cakes that are traditionally eaten during Tet) and a tray of sweeten goodies (sugar coated ginger, melons, etc.) which we will graze on next week. We went to my in-laws’ in San Francisco for the traditional Chinese New Year dinner on New Year’s Eve. Grandma Chan cooked a 9 course meal made from scratch (yummy!).

The grandparents handed out red envelopes or lucky money to the kids (including us) and the grandkids (our children). We have officially entered adulthood in both the Chinese and Vietnamese traditions because we are married. Therefore, we will be expected to give out red envelopes to all those who are younger and unmarried. For us, this means that we are obligated to give money to Albert’s sister and our three children, though we do give out additional packets to the children of our friends also. We also plan to take our 3 year old to Grand Century Mall in San Jose to see the Dragon Dance next weekend. Our three month old twins will have to wait until next year to enjoy the festivities as the performance and festivities are usually very loud and crowded.

The San Francisco Bay Area is chock-a-block of celebrations for this festive holiday, check out some of these suggestions:

Vietnamese Spring Festival and Parade, San Jose, February 10
Lunar New Year Celebration at Children’s Discovery Museum, San Jose, February 16-17
Chinatown Community Street Fair, San Francisco, February 23-24

How are you celebrating this Year of the Rat? Did we miss your favorite festival? Let us know!!