Gung Hay Fat Choy

Maggie is off school today. It’s Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year to be more inclusive. I don’t know how many other places in the country get a school holiday for this, but it’s a BIG deal in San Francisco. If nothing else, there are practical reasons to close the schools. There are so many Asian kids in the San Francisco schools that would take the day off anyway, it makes sense to make it an actual holiday. Even Irish Americans (that’s us) get the day off if they utilize the public schools. I find it best to celebrate New Year in every culture. There’s always the ability to start the resolutions again.

The Year of the Ox begins and the Year of the Rat ends. Right off the bat, that seems better. I cannot begin to write about the Lunar calendar and what it means, but I have learned this week that people born in the Year of Ox may are honest, hard-working, straightforward people. Examples of these are my sister Joan and Barack Obama. If the year is anything like either of these two people, it will be a good one.

One thing the Chinese New Year means is that my high school friend, and favorite Chinese Cookbook author, Grace, comes to town to visit her parents. Grace lives in New York but makes regular visits to see her parents, and the New Year is always one of those times. For the past several years, our house has been a regular stop for her as well.

We reconnected several years ago when I was charged with tracking down classmates for a high school reunion. Because we went to a small girls school, this was not a particularly onerous task. I think I found all but about five. Further because Grace is a published author*, finding her was a snap. She didn’t make the reunion, but we managed to stay in touch ever since. She loves Maggie and faithfully reads this to keep up on all the news. Maggie just takes it in with a grin.
This time she brought Maggie a gift, a very cool t-shirt pictured here. It simply says New York City with graffitti pain splattered all over it. Maggie is very pleased with it and adopted a rather blasé teenage attitude as soon as we put it on her. I know she’ll be wearing this to school as soon as possible. It has just the right mixture of whimsy and edge that every 8th grader seeks.

Of course, she’ll have to wait until tomorrow, there’s no one there today.

So to all of you: Gung Hay Fat Choy! Wishing you all the strength of the Ox for the year that is just beginning.

·Grace Young’s beautiful books include: The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen and Breath of a Wok and she’s working on a new one.