It’s still a week away when this post goes live, but Happy Lunar New Year! The Year of the Dragon returns to the rivers as the Year of the Snake slithers from the woodwork1. In the spirit of Sumayyah’s post last year, I thought I’d highlight some snake-themed items in our catalogue.
I’ll get to that in a bit, though, as I’ve gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with my research for this one. You see, growing up in York Region, this celebration was called Chinese New Year, which is hyperspecific but also an accepted2 name. In China, this is 春节3 (Chūnjié) or Spring Festival, and it kicks off the largest human migration on the planet as people travel to celebrate with family and friends and use the extended vacation for sightseeing in other parts of the country. I’ve been in China during a similar holiday period, and while it’s bonkers how many people are travelling, we got where we were going at the times we were supposed to get there. The issue is less about the efficiency of transit and more about getting a ticket in the first place.
China isn’t the only country that celebrates this new year. As a couple of examples, it’s 節 Tết in Vietnam and 설날 (Seollal) in Korea. Hence, ‘Lunar New Year.’ But even this is a misnomer since it’s not a purely lunar calendar that determines when the celebration is, but rather a lunisolar calendar, aka the Chinese Calendar, which is why some prefer ‘Chinese New Year.’ Whatever it’s called and wherever it’s celebrated, it’s a time to gather with family and friends to celebrate and feast. I don’t know our menu for that day yet, but I’ve gotten pretty adept at crispy skin pork belly, so that’s an option.
But you’re not here to read about me getting side-tracked. Or maybe you are? And it’s not precisely a side track, more of an overview of why I’m doing this. Snake books, though. That’s what I’m supposed to be talking about, sssssso it’sssss time to sssssstart.
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