Marysville Tutors

About Marysville

Every year in a small town thirty minutes from Sacramento the Bok Kai Festival and Parade is celebrated by its local residents. Marysville, despite its very Anglo-sounding name, has a rich history of Chinese American traditions in its town, owing to some of its early residents in the mid-nineteenth century.

The Bok Kai Festival is celebrated at the start of Chinese New Year in Marysville and concludes with Bomb Day (called Yee Yuet Yee), wherein local children search for rings from the bombs for good luck. These rings are dispersed over the area for celebrants to hunt for and then keep for the ensuing year. During the festival, the deity of Bok Eye is celebrated, who is the god of rain and water. Since Marysville is prone to flooding because of its location at the junction of two rivers, local populations have long seen the significance of Bok Eye and his role for the region’s prosperity or failure.

The Bok Kai Temple is also dedicated to Bok Eye, erected in the early days of the city, and preserved ever since. Local Chinese residents are dedicated to continuing its use, and participants frequently worship there still.

The parade held during the festival is the oldest continuing parade in California, often attracting up to 15,000 spectators to the sleepy town of Marysville (with only a population of around 13,000). The parade features the standard participants of bands and local clubs, in addition to dancers and floats. A giant Chinese Dragon completes the parade.

What makes presence of strong Chinese traditions in Marysville interesting is the fact that the community has not always had harmonious relationships with its Chinese residents. After Chinese immigrants settled there following the California Gold Rush, they were eventually expelled from the town in the 1880s, and by many counts, their population has not recovered to the same level it was before the expulsion. Still, those who remain in Marysville, removed from the violence of the past, celebrate the culture the city once shunned, and the few Asian-Americans who live in the city ensure the traditions of their ancestors are recognized every year with the Bok Kai Festival and Parade.

The fact that the population of Marysville essentially doubles once a year to celebrate a historically-marginalized culture speaks to the fact that people are able to overcome their differences over time, and that through working together, we can learn to appreciate each other’s values. Tutors of Marysville will no doubt want to work with their students the same way city officials work with their Asian population every year to honor the Chinese New Year and the god Bok Eye. Collaboration in learning is a way for students to see the success they so desire. Academic progress can be accomplished with the accommodating and eager tutors in Marysville, trained to recognize the strengths and potential in each of their clients.