Most of the usual local festivities connected with today’s Chinese New Year holiday are called off, due to COVID-19 concerns. Still, the Year of the Ox is being ushered in with merchants in Honolulu’s Chinatown offering goods for at-home celebrations, with the possibility of lion dancers stationed near some storefronts. This year, as a public health precaution, good-luck donations are being collected in baskets, rather than handed into the lion’s mouth.

Let’s hope that next year we’ll see the return of Narcissus Festival cultural programs and other large-gathering traditions to welcome 2022’s Year of the Tiger.