Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Year of the (Earth) Rat Begins!

On my recent trip to NYC, I had the good fortune to visit Chinatown on the actual day of Chinese New Year!

Here are the kids on Mott street running in the flurry of confetti shot from these giand hand-held poppers.



After eating the best Dim Sum of my life, I wandered the streets and ended up at Chatham Square, where they were getting ready to set off fireworks.




Here are the strings of firecrackers that went off for twenty minutes following the fireworks launched overhead.















And of course, there were dragon parades all through the neighborhood. It's not one big parade, a cop told me, just about twelve small ones over a period of hours.

Each dragon was followed by a band of drummers. It was loud, and really, really cool.






So this year is the year of the rat -- and the element of earth. If you want to read more about the new beginnings associated with year of the rat, go to http://www.chinese.astrology.com/ to check out the predictions, and to see what your Chinese zodiac sign is.

I was born in the year of the dog -- and the element of metal. I'm a steel Chihuahua, I guess. :) But it's really kind of cool to check out what your sign (and that of your friend/spouse/fave hottie) is.

What sign are you? Do you believe in this stuff, anyway?

Hugs,

Heather

Heather Davis is the author of
Never Cry Werewolf
Coming in April 2009 from HarperCollins

3 comments:

Me said...

Aw, great pics, Heath. I've been missing NYC a lot lately, and this just makes me miss it a million times more. =(

I'm a fire dragon, which in no way explains why I: a) love swimming so much, b) hate reptiles of all sorts, or c) was rooting for Christian Bale in Reign of Fire.

stephhale said...

I'm the ox. It says I'm a born leader and capable of great things. Sounds good to me! :)

TinaFerraro said...

I'm monkey and predicted to have a very fortunate year. But I have to watch that I don't get overconfident. Okay, those who know me...is that a high risk? ;)

Heather, wonderful pictures and great fun to read about this and visit that site. Thanks so much!