After 143 years, the oldest parade in California is still popular

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If you try to imagine where in California you’ll find the 143-year-old Chinese New Year parade, you might not think of this small town in the White-majority Gold Country.

But Marysville, a city about 45 minutes north of Sacramento, is the place that holds the record for the oldest uninterrupted parade in the state: Bok Kai.

On Saturday, despite an unprecedented winter storm warning, thousands of people, many of whom were non-Asians, gathered in downtown Marysville to celebrate the nearly 150-year-old tradition.

Candace Young Fresques, a Marysville native and organizer of the event for the past 10 years, said it was great to see so many people show up.

“Marysville is such a small town and we don’t see each other very much,” she said. “I feel very honored to have been the caretaker of the event to carry on the legacy and the legacy.”

Since the 1850s, Bok Kai has been a cultural event for Chinese immigrants to the area during the gold rush. In Marysville’s Chinatown, Bok Kai Temple is also one of the oldest Chinese temples in California.

The word “Bok Kai (北溪)” means “northern stream” and the deity worshiped at the temple is said to be a water-watching god, so he can protect Marysville from flooding and provide the region with water for crops.

The full series of Bok Kai celebrations are usually held on the weekend closest to the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar. After Saturday’s parade, the iconic “Bomb Day” event falls on Sunday, during which the Chinese “fight” trying to catch the rings fired into the sky for good luck.

Believers burn incense at the temple, asking fortune-tellers about their fate.

place of refuge

Marysville’s Chinatown was once California’s third largest and later became a haven as other, smaller Chinatowns faced racism and violence and were eventually razed to the ground. The Yuba County community has played a key role in the preservation of the Bok Kai tradition.

But as dreams of finding gold faded, many Chinese moved to larger urban areas like Sacramento, Oakland, and San Francisco, so the local Chinese American population dwindled, as happened in other rural Chinatowns in California.

Now, every year since 1880, Chinese Americans from across the country, but especially from the Bay Area, travel to Marysville to join the Bok Kai celebration. The Chinese American Pioneer Legacy Committee, a group formed by many Chinese American leaders from the Bay Area, including former Oakland Mayor Gene Quan, has led a group that has been visiting Marysville for the past five years.

Gordon Tom, 82, a descendant of a historic Marysville family, said only a few Toms still live in the area, as many of his relatives have moved to the Bay Area. Tom said that his grandfather came to Marysville in 1851 when he was 13 years old.

“I grew up here. I had a wonderful childhood here,” Tom said. “I love this city”.

English