LA kicks off festive occasion

LOS ANGELES: The 50th annual Los Angeles-San Pedro LA Harbor Holiday Afloat Parade enchanted the eye as a stunning array of ships, boats and pleasure craft bedecked with holiday lights of all colors and shapes set sail in the Los Angeles Harbor Saturday night.

Though lacking the intrepid Asian junks, shows and crab-claw sailing canoes of the Indo-Pacific that sailed the Pacific thousands years ago or the stately three-masted tall ships from Europe that circled the globe in the late 15th century, this aquatic festival of shipborne lights is a marvelous tradition that has been a family favorite for two generations.