On the first day in the Year of the Monkey, January 22, 2004, the sky,  according to the BBC News, lit up in Shanghai, as thousands of residents unleashed an all-night barrage of fireworks.

While people across Asia and in Asian communities around the world have been celebrating the Lunar New Year, post offices of different countries have issued stamps, like the one shown on a First Day Cover from the United States, commemorating this important celebration.

Based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the sun, moon and stars, the Lunar New Year dates from around 2600 BC. Thus, the Chinese New Year does not fall on the same date each year, although it is always in January or February.

A complete cycle takes 60 years, divided into 12 year elements. Each of those 12 years is named after an animal. As we may recall, on February 1, 2003, it was the first day in the Year of the Ram. The year a person is born is said to influence his personality.

In honor of this event, let us Shanghailanders reflect for a moment to the late 30‘s when China opened its doors to thousands of Jews that would have otherwise perished in the Holocaust. 
 

Gung Hey Fat Choy

To all my Chinese friends and Shanghailanders