Great weather expected for today's Bok Kai Parade in Marysville
Today
5K run/walk — 9 a.m., registration at 8:15 a.m., starting at First and D streets, Marysville. The entry fees are $10 and $20 on the day of the event. Call 300-7352.
Crafters area — 9 a.m., Second Street, between D and C streets.
Children's craft area — 10 a.m. at Yuba County Library parking lot, Second and C streets. Free.
Parade — 11 a.m. on D Street starting at Sixth Street in Marysville, turns east on First Street, then north on C Street, ending at Third Street.
The parade is followed by a lion dance in front of the Hop Sing Building.
Sunday
Bomb Day — 4 p.m. at First and C streets.
It never rains on the Bok Kai Parade — as legend has it — and the truth of that isn't going to be tested today for the 133rd version of Marysville's celebration honoring its Chinese community.
Clear skies and mid-70s temperatures are forecast for the downtown parade that begins at 11 a.m. at Sixth and D streets. Dragon Fook Lung and lion dancers will once again be prancing to a backdrop of loud firecrackers and large crowds lining the route to Third and C streets.
Grand marshal Ric Lim of Marysville and Bok Kai hostess Rani Lim-Purewal are anxious for this year's festivities.
"I've wanted to do it (be hostess) since I was a little girl," Lim-Purewal said at an earlier Bok Kai event.
Lim — vice president of the Sahm Fow Chinese Community — said the Chinese community and the Bok Kai Parade commi tee switch off every other year in choosing grand marshals.
"It was the Chinese community's turn this year, so they tried to figure out who had participated and worked in the celebration. So it was like, who's it this year?" Lim said.
Lim's been in the area since 1947. He's been a member of the Hop Sing society for many years, and his father was past president of both the society and the Chinese community. A volunteer with the Marysville Police Department for some 13 years, he's also been on the parade committee for at least 12 years, he said, in one way or another.
Last year's grand marshals were siblings Elizabeth Campen and Michael Linteo, co-owners of Butler Cleaners. The business has four stores in the area and has always been a parade sponsor.
Campen said she has two grown daughters who participated in marching bands, and that both over the years were part of the parade.
"I was in the parade and they were watching me, not the other way around," Campen said. "We had a really good time, we were very honored to be asked."
The public part of Bok Kai weekend concludes at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Bomb Day celebration at First and C streets. Fortune rings are fired into the air as young men clamor for a shot at obtaining one of the rings.
