Bok Kai Festival

Bok Kai Festival 2006

Marysville was founded early in the Gold Rush, and it soon had a large Chinese community. The Chinese built a temple to their water god Bok Eye in 1854. Following the destruction of this temple, a new one was built nearby in 1880, and the Bok Kai Festival has been celebrated in Marysville every year since then.

I went to my first Bok Kai Festival in 2006, and returned this past February 25th for the 132nd Festival.

The Bok Kai Parade has many participants from the community, including politicians, high school marching bands, and groups such as the Shriners and E Clampus Vitus. The parade ends with the 175-foot dragon named Hong Wan Lung, carried by airmen from nearby Beale Air Force Base.

Most spectators left when the parade ended. This was a good time to visit the Bok Kai Temple.

Part of the festivities is the lighting of ceremonial "bombs" which contain a good luck ring. Here, a couple lights the bombs from atop the levee that stands between the temple and the Yuba River. The temple once overlooked the river. Then came the runoff from hydraulic mining operations upstream - countless tons of gravel. The levee was built to save Marysville, and today the river flows higher than the temple.

While we took a late lunch at the China Moon Restaurant, in came a lion to bless the restaurant.

We followed the lions to the Silver Dollar Restaurant.

The parade is on Saturday, followed on Sunday by Bomb Day, but I'll have to see Bomb Day another year.