Chinese New Year

It's that time of year again - Chinese New Year.

You gotta love lunar holidays - you are never sure what day they are going to land on. I like the surprise.

Here are some tips for the Chinese New Year.

• Don't clean for a couple of days - you might throw out the good fortune (I doubt this will be a problem for us. Anyway, we have good fortune galore stored around in dog fur).
• Don't wash your hair today (again the good fortune thing).
• Don't lend any money today (I guess this means also borrowing money or using credit cards).
• Wear red.
• Look for red birds (unfortunately, I have not seen my buddy the cardinal around).
• Don't eat meat (we kind of already blew that one).
• Don't curse or use foul language (it is hard because the Chinese character for fortune, which you are supposed to display, is "FOOK").
• Don't cry or else you will cry all year.
• Have an orange - it will bring you wealth.
• And tomorrow, feed a dog a little treat and be extra kind to her or him - the second day of New Year is the day of the dogs . Especially meaningful because this will be the year of the dog.

And as one born in the year of the dog, I am hoping it will be particularly good to me (and to all of you too, of course).

One can only hope.