Chinese New Year Parade in Sydney

We spent Sunday the 6th of Feb in Sydney's Chinatown watching the CNY parade. It was a great way to end a perfect weekend. We had spent a big bulk of it catching up with Casey and Clare and we are hoping to do some joint blogging to share our Saturday night which involved lots of mexican food, feeling seedy after Sangria (what was in that stuff anyway?), cold mushed ice cream, and turkish sweet shops with hookah smoking. But for the meantime, here were some pictures that I tried to take amongst the crowds to try and capture the colourful event.

One of the first few items to come through the parade. Love the big red lanterns and firecrackers.
Always a favourite of mine... the lion dancers. Many a kid has tried this at home with bathtowels and a willing accomplice to prance around with. Yes, of course I mean me! Hope my cousin doesn't remember the time I tried to get him to stand on my shoulders to practice 'cai qing' or picking the vegetables dangling from the ceiling and we all fell into a heap on the ground. Many tears and bribes ensured he didn't tell mum about it :P

Dragon Dancers ... very colourful but not as cool as the lions!

Various mythical figures in operatic costumes on stilts as one of the items. The one on the left who looks like his pants are falling down is supposed to be the Monkey God. The balloons say 2008 as these items were presented by delegations who had flown in from China for the event.

The 'Roo and Panda, probably signifying friendship between China and Australia.

The Olympic colours... heralding the coming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as one of the last few items. Overall it was pretty good quality...many acrobatics were performed as well as marching and dancing in costumes. Richard said he saw children on stilts doing the caterpillar! Pity it escaped me due to the crowds and my slow camera. We were glad we went as although it was crowded, it wasn't like a cattle crush and the slightly overcast day meant it was not too hot!