Gung Hay Fat Choy, Honey

I’ve almost completely left the Chinese New Year celebrations slip by me this year. Today at 12:00pm (about 20 mins ago) the parade kicked of in Chinatown, starting at Pender and Carrall, “it travels northbound on Pender, east on Gore, south on Keefer and ends at Carall.” [News1130]

Photo credit: SqueakyMarmot on Flickr

Vancouver has a huge Chinese population, filled with tradition, and pride that helped build up this entire region. When walking around my side of town I hardly notice anything that would hint that the new year was here. The only shop window displaying something festive is Le Chateau on Burrard and Robson. It’s storefont is filled with bright red lanterns trimmed with gold, strewn about the entire window display. It’s actually quite nice. The rest of the shops are focusing on what’s happening February 14th. Something with less tradition but I suppose more buying power.

The entire moth of February is about a heart-shaped box (which are themselves being made into chocolate this year). Commercials on the radio are suggesting that a mobile phone is “the perfect gift” or maybe that mp3 player or TV. I’ve already touched on the fact that we don’t need much for Valentine’s Day so I’m going to highlight other things happening in this city this month – even though we’re almost halfway through.

Also next weekend Mount Washington is hosting the Ski for MS. The Thelma to my Louise, Keira-Anne will be boarding to raise funds for a great cause. Read more about it on her post.