It's 2010 and the year of the tiger. The origins of the Chinese New Year celebrations were born out of fear and myth. Legend spoke of the wild beast Nien (also the word for "year" in Mandarin) that appeared at the end of each year, attacking and killing villagers. Loud noises and bright lights were used to scare the beast away, and thus, Chinese New Year celebrations were born.

This weekend, Bookmans Mesa celebrated the beginning of the Chinese New Year with an awesome in-store bash. To celebrate such a festive holiday, one must look the part. We were joined by Dawn from "Shys Designs," whose extraordinary face painting talents at face painting transformed all of our faces into tigers of all colors and stripes.

As little ones begin to line up, eagerly awaiting their turn, they were excited to find different activity stations set up designed to both entertain and educate them. First, they could read and learn about the history of the Chinese New Year in an interactive way; next was the coloring area -- whether glittering up fireworks pictures, coloring the Chinese Zodiac, or learning their animal sign, this was definitely one of the favorite spots! Finally, the kids could learn the proper way to hold and use chopsticks, and even received a pair of chopsticks to take home! All of this excitement was had as everyone munched on fortune cookies and showed off their painted tiger faces. Check out pictures from this great event here on our Flikr page.