Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year! During the late winter, San Francisco celebrates the largest Chinese New Year festival outside of Asia. Chinatown is alive with crowded fairs, noisy firecrackers, colorful decorations, busy shoppers and delicious foods.

Perhaps no holiday is more important to the Chinese than the New Year. During it's month long celebration, mothers cook and clean the home, families and friends come over to visit, and children receive red envelopes bearing money ("lai see"). Children must dress up for guests and be on their best behavior. Parents tell them to not cut our hair or they will lose good luck.

The New Year's celebration culminates with a grand evening parade, full of colorful floats, marching school bands, firecrackers to ward off evil spirits, dancing lions and streaming dragons, and perhaps best of all, children of all cultures dressed in festive costumes. A two-hundred foot long dragon concludes the parade in a shower of firecrackers.

May each new year bring you good health, luck and fortune, happiness, and friends and family!