We are already on Day 5 of the Year of the Dragon, but it is not too late to celebrate. Lunar New Year is a two-week celebration, from the first new moon of the lunar calendar to the first full moon. If you are lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, there are lots of fun events coming up in the next few weeks.

This weekend, Solano Avenue holds its annual Lunar New Year parade and celebration on Sunday January 29. Performances will be held at the Albany Twin Theater from 10-12 and then a parade will march up the avenue.

The same day, from 12-4:30, our family’s favorite Lunar New year celebration will be held at the Oakland Museum. This event includes a wide variety of performances, crafts, and food from all over Asia (a special highlight is the mochi pounding).

Saturday, February 11 is a big day for the Lunar New Year in San Francisco. A unique and very San Francisco way to ring in the new year, Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt, will be held on Justin Herman Plaza starting at 4:30. From their description:

The Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt is a unique urban sleuthing adventure played on the streets of Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill on the night of the annual Chinese New Year Parade. Treasure hunting teams have four hours to solve sixteen clues leading them to obscure landmarks, forgotten architectural delights and vestiges of San Francisco’s colorful past. Players can come with a team already organized, or can join like-minded hunters at the event; it’s a great way to make new friends.

The same day, the San Francisco Symphony has a special Chinese New Year performance at 4pm. And the annual Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown - the largest such event outside Asia – is from 6-8 pm.

To see how people are celebrating the new year in Beijing (firecrackers, firecrackers, and more firecrackers) see this beautiful video produced by the New York Times:

And if you have questions about the basics of Chinese New Year, check out this primer from the New York Times.

To honor Chinese New Year, MomsRising has hosted a blog carnival from Asian and Asian-American bloggers with their thoughts about family as the Year of the Dragon begins.

恭喜发财！

So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the new Little Dragon Tales, Chinese Songs for Children CD, performed by Shanghai Restoration Project featuring Yip’s Canada Children’s Choir. Shanghai Restoration Project is a music group led by Dave Liang which introduces “Eastern instruments and rhythms to the Western sounds of hip-hop and electronica,” according to their own description. They produced a beautiful album, Afterquake, with bluegrass singer Abigail Washburn which remixes sounds, including children’s voices, from the area of Sichuan devastated by the 2008 earthquake.

Their new album of children’s songs is unique and surprisingly enticing. It contains all the same songs I now know by heart and which my three-year-old sings ad nauseum around the house. But backed by real music with the simple, sweet children’s voices they sound completely different and totally endearing. The final song on the album, a solo by Zhang Le of 小白船 (Little White Boat) is especially soothing and beautiful. And as soon as I started playing the CD, my kids both stopped what they were doing and came in the room to listen, singing along.

See two videos below of the recording of Little Dragon Tales:

The CD can be purchased from Amazon or downloaded from iTunes. The liner notes helpfully include full lyrics of all songs with pinyin and English translation. What better way to celebrate the Year of the Dragon with your little ones?

And hear Shanghai Restoration Project’s beautiful interpretation of the folk song Sala, sung by children in Sichuan (this one even made it onto my workout playlist):

[Full disclosure: Cheng & Tsui sent me a free review copy of the CD but the opinions expressed herein are 100% mine.]

[photo by A God's Child on flickr]

Watch video clips here.

InCulture Parent has posted several fun craft projects for the Lunar New Year. My daughter came home from her Chinese daycare with a thumbprint plum blossom painting, and it is my favorite art project either of my children has done in four years of school. Simple and lovely and befitting the holiday. ICP also posted a recipe I put together for yuanxiao, a sweet treat for the holiday which is enjoyed all year around in our house (usually not made by hand, however).

While looking over our selection of Chinese New Year themed books, I realized that several were written by local authors here in the Bay Area. A new addition my kids got this year from friends is Year of the Rabbit, the latest in the series of zodiac-themed books by Oliver Chin. It presents a humorous and simple introduction to the animals of the zodiac, clearly aimed at children who did not grow up with the Chinese tradition.

A couple of years ago when I came across The Cable Car and the Dragon, I thought the book must have been written with my son in mind. Cable cars and dragon dances in one book! Do all five-year-olds feel so passionately about those two things? It’s a wonderful story about San Francisco, an escapee dragon, and a cable car come to life, which my son adores.

For those who are interested, Oliver Chin will be reading at several New Year events in the area. In the meantime, my son’s Chinese immersion school has the day off tomorrow, so we are going skiing (and bringing our hotpot with us).

Happy New Year! 兔年大吉！

[Image courtesy of OnTask]

Childbook also has a list of events throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Enjoy and Happy Year of the Rabbit!

- Regular exercise
- Eat well
- Take my vitamins
- Make time to read
- Resuscitate this website

Stay tuned. And Happy 2011 to all!

For more about the history and meaning of Duanwu Jie, see my post from last year.