Nevada City Chinese Lunar New Year parade, festival

The Nevada City Chinese Lunar New Year Parade and Festival welcomes the Year of the Horse. Chinese New Year is a cultural "gem" in rural communities, and CATS, along with the Miners Foundry Cultural Center, presents this 12th family-friendly celebration, honoring the early Chinese Gold Rush pioneers and railroad workers of the Sierra. Nevada County was home to thousands of Chinese during the Gold Rush, and this event honors their legacy. The community parade begins at noon from the bottom of the Chinese Quarter on Commercial Street (Robinson Plaza), where revelers may line up. After the lion dancing outdoor performance on Spring Street, more entertainment, exhibits and fun will take place inside the Miners Foundry beginning at 1 p.m. Admission is free. Parade Grand Marshals are Susan Levitz and Pascale Fusshoeller, founders of YubaNet.com, who have been staunch supporters of CATS and a great asset and news source to the community. Parade units include the audience favorite – Chinese ceremonial lion dancers and a 72-foot Chinese dragon from Eastern Ways Martial Arts of Sacramento – second- and third-graders from Bell Hill Academy, Mulan (aka Lily Emmolo), members of Grass Valley Aikikai martial arts, theatre groups and other community entries. Food vendors at the Miners Foundry are Kaliko's Hawaiian Kitchen and Gold Rush Cookies. There will be Asian-themed arts and crafts and gifts for sale, a kid's table, mahjong, a new children's Chinese New Year book launch and sale by Allison Chan, face painting with Chinese horoscope tattoos, Chinese tea ceremony demonstrations, Rose Murphy from the Nevada County Historical Society promoting free self-guided historic walking tours of the Grass Valley and Nevada City Chinatowns, Lisa Redfern and Rose Murphy showing their film, "Chinese Family Stories – From Exclusion to Pillars of the Community," community vendors and more. The event is still seeking parade entries, entertainers, vendors, exhibitors, sponsors and lots of volunteers. Contact Jeannie Wood at info@catsweb.org.