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Happy Year of the Pig (or Boar).

Like any good tourists in our own town, we rushed to Chinatown to add to the general crowdedness. We listened to firecrackers being set off every few minutes. We waited 30 minutes in line to get some moon cakes from some apparently particularly famous Chinese bakery that I heard about on NPR yesterday. Here is a picture of the line outside Golden Gate Bakery:

Some trivia:

• This is not only a year of the pig, but a year of the golden pig. Most people have already heard of the Chinese lunar calendar zodiac signs (one per year). This twelve-year cycle itself cycles through five elements: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. The golden years are considered lucky, and pig years are also considered lucky.
• Moon cakes are one of a few traditional foods under attack in California, because of the practice of serving them at room temperature (current time and temperature standards would prevent moon cakes from being served at many places). A bill AB 2214 commissions a study to determine how these foods may be considered “safe”.

One thing I did not expect to see on this walk was the preponderance of Taiwanese flags everywhere (clearly outnumbering the Chinese flags).