Feature: Chinese New Year parade brings festive atmosphere to Chicago

CHICAGO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The parade celebrating the Chinese New Year on Sunday attracted tens of thousands of people to Chinatown on the South Side of Chicago to ring in the Year of the Dragon.

The main streets of Chinatown were lined with teenagers, young couples, and families with young kids sitting on dads' shoulders. Some 50 formations, including 10 marching bands and drum corps, 10 colorful floats, and performance and marching groups, drew cheers and applause from time to time as they passed by.

The parade featured traditional Chinese dragon and lion dancing teams, as well as marching bands of local schools. People raised their arms to grab candies tossed from several floats.

Dale Adele was at the parade with his son, who was on the parade team for the dragon dance. To prepare for the parade show, her son started practicing about six months ago.

"This is the first time that we've come down for the parade," Adele told Xinhua. "I never got a chance to see celebrations when I was in China. I get to see some celebrating, that's very nice."

As a pilot, Adele used to fly frequently to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong but never got a chance to have a tour in China.

"My 14-year-old son has a very good engineering brain. He's going to high school next year, he's going to take Chinese as his language. And he wants to go to a good engineering school in China," Adele said with a smile.

Harland Joseph Berk came all the way from River Forest in the western suburbs of Chicago to watch the parade with his whole family, including his wife, two sons, and a grandchild.

This was the first time for the 81-year-old corn dealer to watch the parade. He thought the parade was in Chinese style and also an American thing. "You see the Chinese and the dragons, and then you see people with bagpipes, and you see black people with their bands."

Berk went to China 15 years ago. "We went to quite a few different cities. We saw the tombs where the soldiers were. Of course, we were in Beijing, and we went to places where they were growing up green tea," he said.

"Everyone was very nice. And it was all very beautiful," he added.

The annual Chinese New Year Parade is a great event for people of different ethnic groups from around the Great Chicago Area to get acquainted with Chinese culture and traditions, as well as have a taste of Chinese foods.