Tag Archives: Holidays

Gung hey fat choy! Happy New Year!

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There was a new moon in late December so the second new moon after the Winter Solstice falls on January 23rd this year. That means that Monday marks the lunar new year.

Gung hey fat choy! Happy New Year!

People all over Asia celebrate the lunar new year. Since I live near Little Saigon, I’ve seen all the little pastries and moon pies arrive in the shops. Even non-Asians get into the spirit of the holiday. Water Dragon decorations can be seen far and wide across San Francisco – even the windows of an optometrist shop in the Mission District are decked out for the holiday.

I don’t know why the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade is next month and not next weekend. I thought the new year festival lasted a week. Perhaps the parade marks the end of the lunar month.

Over 100 contingents will participate in the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade this year. It’s been a San Francisco tradition since just after the Gold Rush and one I look forward to every year. As far as I know it’s the only nocturnal parade in San Francisco and there are tons of parades and marches around here.

When the weather is good hundreds of thousands of people come to watch the parade on the street and many more tune in to watch it on San Francisco Bay Area television. Will I see you there?

Pride© Parade & Festival

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I’ve been to over half of the Pride events ever held in San Francisco so for me, the parade lost its luster once it passed the two hour mark – it’s long because SF includes everyone if they’re based in the city or not because, hey, it’s their pride too…

An ever accelerating phenomenon of the SF Pride events is attendance by younger and more ethnically diverse people. While I think it’s great that 20 and under kids that are too young for bars are coming out and finding a place in our community, I think there needs to more of a place for them at the event. Women outnumbered men at least 3-to-1 in every area of the festival except maybe the Faerie Village but there was so much androgyny in that space that I can’t be certain.

What is certain is the organizers are out of touch with their demographics. Instead of courting alcohol vendors and airlines to underwrite the event with sponsorships, they should look to companies more in line with the folks who actually turn up.

It felt like they were selling 25-45 year-old Gay White Men to their sponsors and delivering 16-25 year-old Black, Hispanic and Asian Women.

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Queen’s Day In San Francisco

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Kaas Meisje Q

Kaas Meisje Q

In the Netherlands the current queen’s mother’s birthday is a huge excuse to party. The event is called Koninginnedag or in English, Queen’s Day. The current queen’s birthday is in January so like the British monarch she has two official birthdays – her actual birthday and the Queen’s Day party to celebrate her birth.

Because the royal family’s surname is Orange-Nassau the whole country gets decked out in orange. It is also the only time of year that people are allowed to sell stuff without a retail license so the last weekend in April has something for everyone – yard sales all over the country and lots of drinking in the streets.

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Earth Day 2011

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I’ll admit I used to care more about Earth Day but honestly Green Fatigue set in for me about a decade ago and now I just can’t be bothered to do anything all that special to mark the day.

I used to think that every little bit helps but as time progressed and things have gotten worse, my understanding has evolved. All the focus on recycling or planting trees feels too much like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Drastic times call for drastic measures and until we have free and fair publicly funded elections in the United States, I don’t think we’ll really see much substantive progress on environmental issues.

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