Brief History of the Lotus Festival
2006 Festival Photo via LA Taco
Since we didn’t publish our usual “Flashback Friday” history post yesterday, with the Lotus Festival going on I thought it’d be a good opportunity to do a quick history of the Fest.
"Lotus Festival in the 1970s." Flickr photo by La Angelena
The Lotus Festival started out being called “The Day of the Lotus,” and debuted at Echo Park Lake in 1972 thanks to the Department of Recreation and Parks and members of the Council of Oriental Organizations (COO). Each festival takes place in July, timed for the blooming of the lotus flowers. Starting out as one-day affairs, the Day of the Lotus was designed to promote awareness of the contributions by Asian Americans to our culture and communities. The festival focuses on a different Asian ethnicity each year, this year they will showcase the Chinese culture.
The Festival was renamed “Lotus Festival” in 1990, and include the theme: “The Peoples and Culture of the Pacific Rim.” In 1991 the Lotus Advisory Board was developed, and included representatives from various Asian and Pacific Island communities.
"Lotus Festival in the 1970s." Flickr photo by La Angelena
I’m not sure when the dragon boat races began exactly, but the Dragon Boat website says it started when “the festival had a Chinese opening day ceremony.”
The origin of the lotus themselves are murky. Possible mentions of the lotus bed goes back as early as 1891, when development of the actual park first began (fun fact – it was first a reservoir and cost $5,637.00 to fill the newly formed lake with city water). However, that is not confirmed, and it’s more likely they showed up in 1923 or 1924. I have also read accounts of there maybe being two beds of lotus plants in the lake instead of just one.
Though there are rumors about the origins of the plants themselves (including that the Angeles Temple missionaries planted them using seeds from China), noone knows really where they came from or when. According the LA Parks website, the existing lotus plants in the lake are assumed to be “biologically linked to the original plants” as they are unaware of any supplemental planting since the original bed was created.
Even though the lotus flowers in Echo Park Lake were often considered the largest outside of Asia, the Echo Park Historical Society notes it’s only the largest in the Western U.S., citing larger beds in “the Carolinas, Hawaii and possibly Florida.”
The last couple of years have been difficult for the Lotus Festival. In 2007, the Lotus bed seemed to be dying off, and now are completely gone probably due to pollution and temperature changes. Last year the Lotus Festival was canceled due to city budget cuts, instead the community held the Echo Park Community Festival. When the city rebuilds Echo Park Lake, starting construction in April 2011, the Lotus bed will be a part of the rehab. You can also read a fact sheet from the Dept. of Parks and Rec about why the lotus went in decline and what they’re doing about by clicking here (for instance, they planted nine tubers this year to see if they will grow).
Thank you to “La Angelena” of LAHistory on Twitter for the photos – it’s been hard finding pictures of the early days of the Lotus Festival!
I blog quite often and I seriously appreciate your content.
Your article has really peaked my interest. I’m going to bookmark your blog and keep checking for new details about once per week.
I opted in for your RSS feed too.
I always used to read piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a
user of net thus from now I am using net for content, thanks to web.
Pretty component of content. I simply stumbled
upon your weblog and in accession capital
to say that I get in fact enjoyed account your weblog posts.
Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feeds and even I fulfillment you get right
of entry to persistently quickly.
of course like your web site but you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts.
A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it
very troublesome to inform the truth on the
other hand I’ll surely come back again.
Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thank you so much, However I am going
through issues with your RSS. I don’t understand the reason why I am unable to
join it. Is there anybody else having similar RSS problems?
Anyone who knows the solution can you kindly respond?
Thanks!!
Great beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a
blog website? The account helped me a acceptable deal.
I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea
For the reason that the admin of this website is working, no doubt very quickly it will be famous, due to its quality contents.
This is the perfect blog for anybody who wants
to understand this topic. You realize a whole lot its almost tough
to argue with you (not that I really would want to…HaHa).
You certainly put a brand new spin on a subject that has been written about for a
long time. Wonderful stuff, just wonderful!
Fantastic website you have here but I was wondering if you knew of any
community forums that cover the same topics discussed
here? I’d really like to be a part of online community where I can get feedback from other knowledgeable individuals that share
the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let
me know. Kudos!
A person necessarily lend a hand to make critically posts I’d state.
This is the very first time I frequented your website page and
thus far? I amazed with the research you made to make this particular put up amazing.
Fantastic process!
I’ve been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours these days, yet I by no means discovered any fascinating article like yours.
It’s beautiful price enough for me. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made excellent content as you did, the internet will be much more useful than ever before.
Good day! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy
reading through your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics?
Thanks for your time!
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I in finding It really helpful
& it helped me out much. I hope to offer something again and help
others like you aided me.
Quality posts is the crucial to attract the visitors to pay a quick visit
the web page, that’s what this site is providing.
hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve certainly picked up anything new from right here.
I did however expertise several technical points
using this website, as I experienced to reload the site
a lot of times previous to I could get it to load correctly.
I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am
complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality
score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding
this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for much more of your respective intriguing
content. Ensure that you update this again soon.
Hello there, There’s no doubt that your website could possibly
be having browser compatibility problems. Whenever I look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however, if opening in Internet Explorer, it has
some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to provide you
with a quick heads up! Other than that, great blog!
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up
and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading properly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show
the same results.
Amazing! This blog looks just like my old one!
It’s on a completely different subject but
it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Outstanding choice of
colors!
Great beat ! I would like to apprentice whilst you amend your website,
how can i subscribe for a weblog website? The account aided me a applicable deal.
I had been a little bit familiar of this your broadcast provided bright clear idea
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about
this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead
of that, this is wonderful blog. A great read. I will definitely be back.
I think that everything published made a bunch of sense. But,
what about this? suppose you were to write a awesome
headline? I mean, I don’t wish to tell you how to run your blog, however suppose you added a title to possibly get a person’s
attention? I mean Brief History of the Lotus Festival |
Echo Park Now is kinda plain. You ought to look at Yahoo’s
front page and note how they create news titles to grab
viewers to open the links. You might add a related video
or a related picture or two to get people excited about everything’ve got to say.
In my opinion, it would bring your website a little livelier.
Hello mates, how is all, and what you want to say regarding this article, in my view
its truly remarkable in support of me.
Great post! We will be linking to this particularly
great content on our website. Keep up the good
writing.
Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get
my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m
not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share.
Cheers!
I constantly spent my half an hour to read this web
site’s articles or reviews all the time along with a mug of coffee.
Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long)
so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say,
I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing.
Do you have any recommendations for inexperienced blog writers?
I’d really appreciate it.
Actually no matter if someone doesn’t be aware of after that its up to other visitors that they will assist, so
here it happens.
You really make it seem really easy with your presentation however I in finding this matter to be really something that I think I would by no means
understand. It kind of feels too complicated and very extensive for me.
I’m having a look forward on your subsequent publish,
I’ll attempt to get the dangle of it!
What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this
I’ve discovered It positively helpful and it has aided me out loads.
I hope to contribute & help different customers like
its helped me. Great job.
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely smartly written article.
I’ll make sure to bookmark it and return to learn more of your useful information.
Thank you for the post. I will certainly comeback.
Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site
and in accession capital to assert that I get in fact enjoyed account your blog
posts. Any way I will be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently rapidly.
I read this piece of writing fully concerning the resemblance of hottest and previous technologies,
it’s awesome article.
Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is fantastic, as well as the content!
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the pictures on this blog loading?
I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
What’s up to all, how is everything, I think every one is getting more from this site, and your views are pleasant in support of new viewers.
Right away I am ready to do my breakfast, later than having my breakfast coming
yet again to read further news.
Useful information. Fortunate me I found your web site
unintentionally, and I’m stunned why this accident didn’t happened in advance!
I bookmarked it.
Thanks for ones marvelous posting! I really enjoyed reading it, you could be a great author.
I will always bookmark your blog and may come back later in life.
I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great writing, have a nice morning!
Excellent blog here! Also your web site loads up very
fast! What web host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
I wish my site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your
web site and in accession capital to assert that I get actually enjoyed account your blog posts.
Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your augment
and even I achievement you access consistently fast.
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend
who has been doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me lunch because I discovered it for
him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
But yeah, thanks for spending time to discuss this matter here on your site.
My brother recommended I would possibly like this web site.
He was totally right. This put up actually made my day. You can not consider simply how much time I had spent for
this information! Thank you!
I used to be recommended this blog by my cousin. I’m no longer certain whether or
not this put up is written by him as nobody else understand such special about my problem.
You are wonderful! Thank you!
I think the admin of this web site is actually
working hard in support of his web site, as here every data is
quality based information.
Hey there! I’ve been following your weblog for a while now
and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from
Kingwood Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the good
work!
You’ve made some decent points there. I looked on the
web to find out more about the issue and found most individuals
will go along with your views on this web site.
Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one is sharing information, that’s genuinely
fine, keep up writing.
Thanks for sharing such a fastidious opinion, paragraph is nice,
thats why i have read it entirely
Actually when someone doesn’t know afterward its up
to other people that they will help, so here it takes place.
Quality articles is the crucial to interest the people to pay a quick visit the
site, that’s what this web site is providing.