Year of the Pig

Happy Chinese (and most of Eastern Asia) New Year. The year of the pig, or Ding Hai, starts today and goes until 7 February 2008 when the Year of the Rat begins. According to those reliable folks at wikipedia:
According to legend, in ancient China, the nián, a man-eating
beast from the mountains, could silently infiltrate houses to
prey on humans. The people later learned that the nian was
sensitive to loud noises and the color red, so they scared it
away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the
color red. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations.
Guò nián, which means to celebrate the new year, literally means the passing of the nian beast.Of course, in other mid-February celebration news, Steve and Annette had a great pre-Lenten party last night in the Cajun Mardi Gras spicy food and good music sense, not in the Polish Punzki Day doughnut sense. While I imagine 30 people sitting around eating doughnuts would be interesting, the Mardi Gras style party was much better than a Punzki Day party would ever be. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Steve made a "king's Cake" which had a Chuckie Cheese ring inside. The person who got the ring also got to be the King or Queen for the night. Jim and Gerry played a lot of music, some of which they played the night before at Bombadill's, and a lot of other stuff too. It was funny watching him do Grateful Dead tunes and realizing how many people I work with actually knew them. The grateful Dead are also fitting because they played Chinese New Years shows every year for a few years in a row in the mid to late 1980s. Here's a fantastic show from 14 February 1986 with Phil and Brent on a great "Keep on Growing" followed by a fantastic "Sailor->Saint."