Chinese New Year

For those who are not familiar with the Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the "Ox". Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar, so it lands on a different date on the western calendar every year. Anyway, this year, January 26th, 2009 will be the day to celebrate. One of the greatest traditions that I like and most kids like are the "Red Envelopes" that we get from adults.

So what is Red Envelopes? They are red envelopes that hold money and are given to younger friends and family members. You only pass them out if you are married. The amount of money you put in is up to you. As for kids, they usually need to say some kinda good wishes or greetings before they received the envelope. Ex. "Wishing you a great fortune", "Wishing you a success and good health", etc. To better illustrate, see the picture that I found taken by Dave Yu.


Another tradition that is great, is the food. There are many food there are prepared only for New Year. I especially love the "Year Cake." If I remember correctly, it's made with brown sugar and green bean powder (it's like a corn starch), you mix them together with water and then steam it. The texture is kind of chewy and it harden after it cools off. My mom like to cut them up into square pieces when it's hard. Then, we beat some eggs and dip the year cake squares in them and pan fried them. They will soften up.

Since I had some time over Christmas, I decided to finish up my zodiac animal designs. The last 2 years, I had the piggy and rat done, but have gotten many requests for the rest of them. So, here they are. They are available as button pins, greeting cards, stickers or magnets. I hope you like them!