Gung Hay Fat Choy

Meaning something like "Congratulations and be Properous."

My family was still in Honolulu when the year changed from 1949 to 1950. It seemed like a big deal to my 8-year old mind, the marking of a decade. It was the first time we kids were allowed to stay up for a New Year's celebration. It was fantastic, fireworks going off everywhere, people out in the streets banging on drums, pans, and anything else that had any resonance. Even an 8-year old could buy fireworks and I did. They were very cheap and no one seemed concerned about selling them to kids. For days we bought loads of long strings of Ladyfinger firecrackers, very cheap at the time. They actually packed quite a bang for a tiny firecracker. Then we'd get our matches at one of the many small eateries or markets in business at the time, or nick them from our parents, all of them smoked. It was odd we could have firecrackers but matches were forbidden in our house, or at least that's how I recall it. We'd light up the whole string or pull them off and light them one by one, joyously flinging them everwhere. Kids thought it was fun to break them in half and light the middle so it sprayed sparks like a sparkler. One of mine blew up in my hand and burned the heck out my index finger and nail. It didn't dampen my enthusiam for more than a couple of minutes. It was black for weeks. The nail is still crooked.

It's the year of the Rabbit which is supposed to be a gentler sign than the year of the Tiger (2010). I doubt the Egyptians would agree at this point. Still its just begun and I have hopes.