Girls from a unit called "Fans and Ribbons in Ballet" perform in San Francisco Lunar New Year Parade on Saturday.[Lia Zhu / China Daily]

The streets of San Francisco came alive with elaborate floats, marching bands, martial arts performers, stilt walkers, lion dancers and firecrackers as the city put on its annual Lunar New Year Parade.

This year, more than 100 units participated in Saturday's parade, a celebration that dates back to the 1860s. Participants included marching bands from local schools and universities, art troupes, and floats of banks and corporations.

Nathan Yin, 9, a pupil at College Park Elementary School in San Mateo, was a member of the unit called "Friends of Mandarin Scholars".

"This is my first-ever parade," he said. "I'm so excited!"

Nathan stood at the starting point near Union Square, where the parade winds around into the Chinatown neighborhood. It usually lasts about three hours.

Many of the floats and specialty units featured the theme of this year's Chinese zodiac sign - the ram. Small children also were dressed up like lambs, smiling and waving their hands in the floats.

Miss Chinatown USA also made an appearance.

A giant Golden Dragon, almost 270 feet long, is always featured at the end of the parade as the grand finale. The Golden Dragon, which was made in Foshan, bears many artistic touches, such as the rainbow-colored pompoms on its 6-foot-long head, colorful lights from nose to tail, and silver rivets decorated on both scaly sides. It takes a team of 100 men and women to carry the Golden Dragon.

The marching bands came from diverse backgrounds and wore traditional Chinese costumes.

"I think the diversity of the whole city is reflected in the parade, and that's what makes it such a welcome event," said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, also the first Chinese-American mayor in a city in which an estimated 21 percent of the population claims Chinese ancestry.

He said the Year of Ram is about sharing, and "you got that all in this parade".

Chinese Consul General Luo Linquan and his wife also reviewed the parade.

The event attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators every year, some from as far as Southern California.

Kyleen and her husband came from Santa Cruz, more than 70 miles south of San Francisco. They also brought their three children, ranging in age from 7 months to 5 years.

"We've been doing this for three years," she said. "This year we live in a hotel; we want to make it a vacation."

The annual event, which combines the Chinese Lantern Festival and American parade, has been named one of the top 10 parades in the world by the International Festival and Events Association. It is also the oldest and largest of its kind outside of Asia since the Chinese, who settled here during the Gold Rush, first started the celebration as a means to educate the community about their culture.