If you're Chinese and you live in Richmond, you're part of a big family that came together yesterday for its biggest celebration-- Chinese New Year.
This year, the rest of the community was invited to Mills Godwin High School when area Chinese organizations kicked off the Year of the Ox.
"We have an Armenian festival. We have a Greek festival. We have an Italian festival. Why not have a Chinese festival?" asked organizer John Kang, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans and Richmond Chinese Network.
"What better time than Chinese New Year?"
Three years in the making, the celebration brought together three Chinese schools, three Chinese churches, adoptive families of Chinese children, folk dancers, martial-arts practitioners, yo-yo artists and even a comedian to mark the beginning of year 4707 in the Chinese calendar.
It was so successful that the food started to run out before the lines did.
In the midday warmth, well-wishers lined the parade route outside the school for lion dancers and dragon dancers.
Inside the gym, the lion dancers led the way to the auditorium for an after noon of performances.
Displays offered opportunities to make children's crafts, buy brightly colored Chinese jackets or shoes, buy Chinese paintings, learn about Chinese herbs and acupuncture, or get a chair-massage, as well as eat.
Jennifer Anderson brought son Koa, 4, to see the Richmond version of a holiday they experienced last year in Hawaii, where her family lives.
"I have a Japanese background," she said. "The cultures meld. It's a big party."
It's also a way to enhance your chances for a good year.
"If you hold out some money and the dragon gobbles it up, that's good luck for the year," Anderson said. Koa was hungry, and that offered another opportunity. "Let's go get some noodles for long life," she added.
Weiping Yang held his 2-year-old son, Lawrence, on his shoulders to get a better view of the lion dancers. He has been in Richmond for three years working for Capital One Financial Services.
In Beijing, his family got together for the holiday as usual, he said, but they've changed one part of the tradition. Instead of someone spending days to prepare the 10 or more dishes for the traditional meal, the family there went out to a restaurant.
Lisa Goebel came with her two Chinese children, 3-year-old Hannah and 2-year-old Gabriel, to celebrate with other adoptive families.
"This is nice because they get to see some adults of Chinese descent," she said. "We're here to see the dragons and eat Chinese food and see our friends."
Kang welcomed them all.
He remembers growing up in Richmond when his parents were studying at the Medical College of Virginia in the 1960s.
"I was feeling ashamed of being Chinese," he said. "We didn't have a community here." He spent four years in Asia and four years on the West Coast before moving back and starting his own family here. He's glad to see the changes.
"It's a much more vibrant community now."
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or kcalos@timesdispatch.com.
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