Another year, another Lunar New Year, another echo — a visual echo — of the celebrations. Following all the tail-end holidays at the close of a given year, there’s a brief break, and then Lunar New Year comes ’round. This shot was snapped after the appearance of multiple giant yellow and red lions, ones with tellingly human legs and footwear, brought the promise of a bountiful year to small businesses down the street from where I live. It was a drizzly, cold morning. Neighborhood kids waiting in line for bagels or croissants or dim sum were covering their ears and marveling at the vibrant display. And then the lions moved on. And then the shopkeepers emerged through the diminishing smoke and swept the firecracker detritus, first into little piles, then into dustpans — the amount correlating with how intense the recent explosions had gotten.