It looks like a Tiger of a year… with the Olympics in town, and lions running everywhere at Vancouver's Chinatown Chinese New Year Parade

Lions were everywhere in Vancouver Chinatown, celebrating the Year of the Tiger.

All the celebrities, politicians and VIP's walk at the beginning of the parade. 

Next come the Chinese Canadian veterans of Pacific Unit 280 (minus my uncle Dan, who passed away less than a month ago).  But the veterans all wore red Olympic mittens!

Here's a Chinese parade dragon.  How to tell a dragon from a lion?  You wear the lion costume over your body, while the dragon is always held up on poles!

The Kitchen God always marches in the parade.  The trick is to put honey on the Kitchen God's lips before he makes his report to heaven about your kitchen, so he can only say sweet things with honey on his lips.

Here I am with my friend Georgia, who paddles with us on the Gung Haggis dragon boat team.

The Carnival band all tried to dress up as Tigers….

City Councilor Kerry Jang hands out lucky red envelopes called “li-see” for good luck!

Here I am dressed in my kilt and red Chinese dragon vest.  I met this fellow in his black utility kilt outside the skytrain stop at The Bay.  Kilters greet each other, and I invited him to join us for the next kilts night.  Since it was Chinese New Year we took a picture of him waring my Chinese jacket.  Very cool.