[1][2] Highlights of the parade include floats, lion dancers, elementary school groups in costume, marching bands, stilt walkers, Chinese acrobats, and a Golden Dragon.

It is made in Foshan, China and is 268 feet long, and takes a team of 100 men and women from the martial arts group Leung's White Crane Lion and Dragon Dance Association to carry it.

[9] Harper's Weekly covered the 1871 celebration from a Caucasian perspective: "Our illustrations on page 260 will give the reader a vivid idea of the way in which the Chinese keep their New-Year's Day in San Francisco.

Their year commences on the 18th of February, but the festivities continue for several days, to the great annoyance of the people, as the principal diversion is the constant explosion of fire-crackers and bombs.

"[10] The San Francisco Call noted the holiday in an 1892 article, writing that "no nation [celebrates] the New Year ... with greater rejoicing and feasting than the Chinese", adding that "[m]any white residents who at other times united in saying 'the Chinese must go' find it convenient to invade Chinatown during the holidays and freely partake of Celestial hospitality.

"[11] In 1951, a week-long celebration included an anti-Communist parade with the theme "Torches of Liberty", staged by the Chinese Six Companies and attended by a crowd of 10,000.

[77]: 36  Wong, frustrated by news coverage of gambling arrests in Chinatown, believed that educating Americans about the most significant Chinese holiday would turn around the bad press: "Many celebrants who come to Chinatown for this grand New Year never knew that Chinese New Year was celebrated privately prior to 1953.

"[76]: 244–245  Wong organized a Chinese New Year Festival committee, whose members included restaurateur Johnny Kan and businessman Paul Louie.

[77]: 32 The 1953 parade was led by Grand Marshall Joe Wong, a blind Korean war veteran, featuring the Miss Chinatown festival queen and of course the dragon;[77]: 29  that year marked the first modern San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival[35] intended for the wider public.

[24][80] The carnival was criticized for having little cultural connection to Chinese New Year traditions, and the Wah Ching attempted to burn it in 1968; the gaming booths were discontinued for the 1969 Festival.

[77]: 92  The 1977 Parade included a wedding procession in an attempt to introduce more "authentic" cultural content; this was the brainchild of organizer David Lei, newly hired that year by the San Francisco Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which had become a co-sponsor in 1963.

[83] As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Pak's quips "ranged from humorous to mean, but they were almost always pointed and pertinent to Chinatown's interests".

[83] From 2004 on, Pak barred Falun Gong, a religious movement banned in China, from further participation[84] for violating parade rules by distributing leaflets.

[85] The group and others, including San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly, subsequently criticized Pak for allegedly enforcing the will of the Chinese government.

[84] Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the parade scheduled for 2021 was canceled in November 2020; the floats and painted ox sculptures will be on static display for the public.

Miss Chinatown USA is traditionally present at the parade, as is a Golden Dragon which is more than 201 feet (61 m) long and manned inside by over 100 puppeteers.

[88] Approximately 1,700 racers and 250 volunteers participate in the annual Chinese New Year 5K and 10K run and walk which is held by the Chinatown YMCA.

After the race, participants receive awards, goodies, a T-shirt, refreshments, and can engage in family activities and sponsor booths.

Vendors line the streets and sell goods including traditional flowers, plants, fruits and candies which people give as gifts to family and friends or use for house decorations.

[4] Starting in 2019, gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins were passed out in traditional lai see (red envelopes) to children for the one-day Choy Sun Doe event, celebrating the arrival of the god of wealth.

[113][114] Families participated in making a pellet drum, used for thousands of years as part of traditional celebrations, using simple materials.

The Orchestra's musical education programs, from over 75,00 school in the Bay Area, receive the proceeds from the Festival Reception and Imperial Dinner.

[127] Community leaders in Chinatown were displeased, but city officials forced the route change to avoid traffic jams and a potential fire hazard.

After the modern parades began in 1953, the first new Gum Lung was imported in 1957 from Hong Kong, billed as one city block or 150 feet (46 m) long.

[131] The 1961 dragon was made surplus and sold to Marysville, California, where it participated in that city's annual Bok Kai parade until 1984;[134] it replaced Moo Lung, Marysville's earlier dragon, which had been loaned to Chinese communities across the United States from Seattle to New York, including two appearances in San Francisco (1885 and 1937).