THE TEA FESTIVAL COMES (back) TO LIFE+ LUNAR NEW YEAR!

Ni hao, neighbors!

Welcome back for another culturally-competent edition of the Fun Finder Blog! This week, I’m riding high after a fantastically frosty weekend and a wonderful time at the Lunar New Year celebration in Chinatown! In fact, I had so much fun that I think I’m going to switch over to the Lunar Calendar full time! It’s perfect, I’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day in March, I’ll pay my taxes in August, and I’ll go to jail for tax evasion in November! I’ve got my whole year figured out already!

In all seriousness, one of my biggest pet peeves is the way months are named. October is the tenth month, even with that “Oct-” prefix? November should be nine, and the “Dec-” in December pretty clearly refers to the number ten. Decimal, decimeter, decahedron? All related to the number ten. Get this, the reason these months are all slightly off is JULIUS FREAKIN’ CAESAR decided to add two months to the calendar because he was a giant narcissist. That’s right, July is actually names after Julius Caesar, and August is named for his heir, Augustus Caesar. I realize Caesar was sort of a divine god-king type fella, but I have to know, where does one sign up to get a month names after them?

No, seriously, I’m really asking. I have strong opinions about Fun-uary. If you know someone I can talk to about this, please send your letters to Ocean 98.5, care of AJ Cruze.

This weekend was a blast, and not just a blast of cold air either! My personal hero Robin Farrell gave an extremely inspirational speech called “PLOT TWIST! Finding Strength through Adversity” for the Inspired Living Summit at the Coast Hotel, and you absolutely should have been there. I’m still feeling inspired! Definitely keep an eye out for her next speech! After that, it was the Victoria Tea Festival Revival for some hot leaf-water! Kidding, there were so many delicious kinds of tea (and a few different blends of kombucha). Sunday was just as chill (ha) with a visit out to Beaver/Elk Lake for the “Love is in the Air” event where I handed out some delightful Valentine’s day treats courtesy of Cupcakes at Uptown, and learned a little bit more about how animals spend Valentine’s Day! It’s gross.

After a beautiful morning at the lake, it was time for the Lunar New Year’s celebration in Chinatown! It was a ton of fun. One of the first things I noticed were lettuce leaves on the ground outside buisnesses. Turns out it’s for a tradition called the “Lion Dance”. People hide a small red money pouch in the head of lettuce, then leave it above their door. The “Lion” comes to their door, shreds the lettuce, takes the money, and blesses the building for the coming year!

I took some amazing photos this weekend, check them out after the jump!

Thanks for reading, and, as always, an enormous #OceanFamily thanks to Cupcakes at Uptown, Moxie’s Grill and Bar, Monk Office, Westshore Town Centre and Campus Nissan!

See you next week!