Today is the first day of the Year of the Rooster. Gung hai fat choi everyone! Some cool bloggers have come up with great titles celebrating the year of the Rooster, so I won't go down that path. But you should check out a great article in today's SF Chronicle by Jeff Yang, author of Once Upon a Time in China: A Guide to Hong Kong, Taiwanese, & Mainland Chinese Cinema and Eastern Standard Time. The article, entitled ASIAN POP: Lunar Year 2.0, offers a brief historical look at traditional Chinese New Year rituals, such as sweeping the house and cleaning everything on New Year's Eve because if you do
any cleaning on New Year's Day, you'll wipe away a year's worth of good
luck. The article then launches into some great and funny ideas on how to update those traditional rituals "to embrace modern-world realities," including a fantastic side-note and link to The Geek Guide to Kosher Machines, to point out "Orthodox Judaism, which has managed to preserve its traditions and rituals for nearly 58 centuries while evolving them to address contemporary society
and technology." I have to run so I leave you with a few highlights from today's article:
"Lucky Money": In an era of digital transactions, paper is unhygienic and obsolete. Have your overseas relatives PayPal you your li shi instead. (Remember to send them a nice "gong xi fa cai" e-greeting first.)
Cleaning the House: Sure, it's important to degrunge your apartment, but what about the tool you use more frequently than any other? I'm talking about your computer, silly! Hopefully, you performed the appropriate Lunar New Year Eve 2.0 rituals of defragmenting your hard drive, removing stray icons from your desktop and emptying your recycle bin. If not, don't touch that keyboard: deleting anything on New Year's Day could lead to 365 days of bad luck. And, for God's sake, if you want to avoid skid row, do not clear your cache!
Honoring Family and Visiting Friends: On Lunar New Year's Day, dedicate your blog entry to your late ancestors. IM or SMS any pals who are out of handy drop-in range; instead of bringing them oranges, e-mail them gift certificates to Apple's iTunes. Suggested artists: Johnny Cash, Eddie Money, 50 Cent, Jewel.
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