Content adapted from Long Beach Watchdog | Feb 8, 2025

Scratch This: The coiling of hearts on the Lunar New Year

This month the Sister Cities of Long Beach will host a celebration of the Lunar New Year, celebrated in Asian cultures. The Long Beach Lunar New Year Festival will take place Saturday, Feb. 15 at the 2nd and PCH center at 12:40 p.m. and will feature a multiethnic combination of entertainment.

Attendees can enjoy an artisan vendor market, dancers, drummers, food of all sorts, stuff for kids to do and an intriguing festival activity called Lantern Riddles.

The Long Beach-Qingdao Association’s Artbook, made up of Lunar New Year artwork by students from both Long Beach and Qingdao, China, will have an unveiling; an Artbook will be given away in an opportunity drawing. Representatives from Sister Cities will be there to answer questions.

Lunar New Year lasts for 15 days, from the first new moon to the first full moon of the lunar calendar. It’s based on the Chinese zodiac, which runs a cycle of 12 years, each represented by a different animal. People born under any sign are said to bear certain characteristics of that animal. To complicate your horoscope, a corresponding system of elements — earth, wood, metal, fire and water — intersects with each animal at certain time periods.

The wood snake represents this lunar year. According to one source, wood snakes are “orderly, intelligent, with a gift for appreciating the knowing celebrities and a refined taste (imagine David Niven’s head on the body of a garter snake wearing a dinner jacket).” If you’re born in a snake year, you’re wise, charming and mysterious, ambitious and determined, according to another source.