Chicago's Lunar New Year parade kick offs with increased security for year of the rabbit

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Thousands of people lined the streets of Chinatown for the annual Lunar New Year Parade on Sunday.

There is still plenty of excitement following their annual event, the community simultaneously celebrates the day and mourns the loss of those in California.

While some things were different this year given last week's events, the year of the rabbit was certainly celebrated.

"This is really really really awesome," said Vanessa Andretta.

"This year is the rabbit year. I was born in 1987 and it's a rabbit year too," added Helen Cui.

It's a time of new beginnings to bring in luck, happiness and prosperity.

"It feels good to just see the support for Chinese businesses and also being in an Asian neighborhood. It's always great to see all these diverse people here," said Alan Yu.

The mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration in California brought changes to this year's event, including removing fireworks from the festivities.

"Typically we would start the parade off with a big bang, but in light of the events of last week, it's appropriate to not do that. We don't want anybody to be nervous about gunfire or anything like that," said 11th Ward Alderwoman Nicole Lee.

There was also increased private security on top of additional city resources.

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"We have assets all over the place, regular patrolman, high visibility, and some not so visible people in key areas," said COmmand John Jerome with CPD 9th District.

It was all in an effort to make sure this Chicago celebration was about community, love and joy.

"You can see there's a great enthusiasm for the people here and we need to unite around this community. This community has faced some challenges in the last year or so," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

"There's so much negativity in the world and it's always good to see some kind of positivity in this area, especially with a bunch of people coming out together to celebrate one thing," Brian Kim added.

Chicago police also have extra patrols on the CTA Red and Green line, so they had transportation covered more than usual for this event.

The parade kicked off at 1 p.m. and proceeded north on Wentworth from 24th Street to Cermak Road to Princeton Avenue.

A number of floats, dancing teams and marching bands were part of the action.

Lee said it is a special weekend for everyone.

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"I'm looking forward to celebrating a new start for everybody. This is an exciting time in the 11th Ward. Chinatown is going to be part of the 11th Ward - the first Asian-majority ward," Lee said.

People in the Chinatown community gathered Saturday night for a candlelight vigil as local leaders said they wanted to take this time to comfort each other and mourn the loss of more members of the Asian American community.