Marysville, CA - Bok Kai Festival
The Red Bluff ancestors must surely be with us because at the Marysville Bok Kai Bomb Day festival, last year HJC caught not only 1 but 3 lucky rings all with the number 8!!! It was with great reluctance that I decided to participate in Bomb Day.
But we had no idea, we would have back-to-back championship rings!
Last year, we caught the first ring. I swear the Chew ancestors saw my hand reach up to them. I closed my eyes and open up my fist and they dropped the first ring right into my palm. I opened my eyes and opened my hand, there it was. I was amazed.
HJC heard about the Marysville Bok Kai Parade and festival from the Foey family who are also one of Red Bluff’s original Chinese Pioneers. We heard their cousins have helped continued this deeply engrained annual tradition in the community of Marysville since 1880. A little reinforcement came, as we went through our Red Bluff’s Chew family pictures finding that our own ancestors participated in this great day of festivities. Followed by our cousin being a volunteer this year. Surely the ancestors were guiding us to attend.
What is Bok Kai? Well, according to the Foey family, Bok Eye is believed to control the water and a Bok Kai celebration is believed to possess the powers to regulate the water flow so that the town doesn’t flood. One year in Marysville, it almost flooded but thank goodness for a blessed Bok Kai festival which saved the town but not the adjacent town. However, we were secretly told the Marysville side didn’t flood because it had a levy (shhhh…).
Bok Kai Festival
There’s so much to do. The first day, there’s a series of interesting lectures and activities spread throughout Chinatown. This is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with the various Chinatown buildings that are still in operation, see the School and visit the Museum. There’s fireworks from morning through the late evening. So much better than the 4th of July! On Bomb Day, which is the following day, we watched a wonderful parade but then it gets pretty violent. It is well known, that a firework shoots up high into the sky with a lucky ring that has a secret number, then a group of eager folks who so desirously want to be lucky, fight over this ring. Some will try to catch it, others will steal it, and some sit on the side and bid a heavy price to take your lucky ring for their good fortune. There’s only a total of 10 rings firecrackered into the air one at a time. You essentially have at least 10 chances to get hurt. There’s no rules to this activity but just know, 8 is the luckiest of numbers.
After I sprang my ankle for three luck 8 rings, I hobbled over to the temple for a blessing and a good fortune reading. The ancestors led me to find Moo Lung.
Moo Lung is inside the Marysville Chinatown temple. It is famous for the many parades the dragon participated all over the country until 1937. He's been crated and preserved in the Bok Kai Temple by the Marysville Chinese Community.
On July 4, 1908, Moo Lung was commissioned by Pioneer Wong Foey to participate in the Red Bluff 4th of July Parade. It was a remarkable day for all to remember.