It was hard to find one image that summed up yesterday's energetic, eclectic Night in Chinatown parade celebrating the Chinese New Year, but let's start with this:

There's Philip Wang, director general of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office in Honolulu, riding atop a red-white-and-blue convertible Corvette in front of the old Wo Fat restaurant.

And there's the Royal Hawaiian Band being followed by members of the Chinese Physical and Cultural Association trailed by a high school Army Reserve Officer's Training Corps marching unit.

Or maybe there's this: Cheryl Kardys and her family, who left their Connecticut home just days ago ahead of the worst blizzard of the year, standing on Hotel Street in shorts and short-sleeved shirts, eating a life-sized mochi carrot, dyed bright orange and rolled in sugar, with a celery stick green top.

"Tastes pretty good. What is it?" Kardys asked a passer-by.

More than anything, though, there were people, thousands of them lining the street, trying to get a glimpse of the politicians, the beauty queens, the martial arts fighters, the (oddly) radio station mobile broadcast vans and, most of all, the dancing dragons and lions.

There were blue-and-gold lions, black-and-red lions, purple-and-white lions and plenty more, all hungrily gobbling up dollar bills offered by children and their parents eager to buy a little bit of New Year's good luck.

And when the parade had finished with a traditional firecracker dance in the street, people swarmed into Chinatown markets, stalls and restaurants.

Since 2007 is the Year of the Boar, there were plenty of T-shirts, mugs and other items featuring a boar image of one sort or another. The Year of the Boar begins today.

In the food stalls, there were the traditional New Year's food items, like jai, jook and gau, but things that seemed only vaguely Chinese, like mochi manapua covered in coconut, or corn on the cob with butter and li hing powder, were also big sellers.

"You get the best food down here," said Sylvia Lee of Hilo, who brought her family along for a weekend in Honolulu. "My daughters are going to get their fortunes told, then we're going to go out to eat."

This weekend's events, which included the grand opening of a new Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i offices on North King Street and an all-day block party on Maunakea Street, were coordinated by the city, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinatown Merchants Association, United Chinese Coalition, United Chinese Society, Honolulu Chinese Jaycees and The ARTS at Marks Garage.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.