Happy Lunar New Year 2009

CNY09, originally uploaded by tiastudio.

Monday Jan 26 was first day of Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. At this time of the year, Chinese homes are decorated with green pomelos, mandarin oranges, gold paper crafts, red paper calligraphy and tall pussy willow plants placed in a big vase. It is also our custom to put money inside a red envelope which we call 'hong bao' and give it to children and unmarried young adults for good luck and to ward off evil spirits. In the Chinese culture red is a lucky color while gold represents wealth.

I woke up very early on the first day of Chinese New Year to do this drawing. I like to hang 'hong bao' on the tall pussy willows and stick some of them on the containers of cookies and candies. I also like to craft fish from the red envelope as fish in Chinese sounds like 'abundance'. Happy Lunar New Year to all especially to my Asian friends.