First of the Lunar New Year Celebrations

A free Pacific Asia Museum day welcomes the Year of the Snake.

February and snakes aren't often paired together -- cold weather, hibernation, and reptiles, et cetera -- but this coming month will be very much about a certain reptile and the welcoming of a new year.

And what forms that snake will take. He's already covered in glittery scales at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and he'll be made out of thousands of pieces of folded paper in Chinatown come Feb. 16 and 17. And the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena is ready to pay honor on Saturday, Feb. 2 via a day-long festival that is both free and family-oriented.

"(E)vents, performances, crafts, demonstrations, and museum galleries" are all part of the pay-no-admission day, which will be a Pan-Asian celebration of several cultures and traditions around the continent.

Highlights include a traditional lion dance by the San Gabriel Valley Chinese Culture Association, taekwondo demos by Xplore TKD Demo Team, and Sumo wrestling.

Chinese knotting, silk art, and lantern making are three of the art demonstrations on the schedule.

There shall be food trucks, of course, including the Mighty Boba. Some boba, some sumo, and some celebratory Year of the Snake spirit? It's a nice and meaning-filled Saturday at the Pacific Asia Museum. And a very rich kick-off to a month-long celebration of a certain serpent and the many gifts and lessons he arrives with with the dawning of a new year.

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