Finding my place at a heavily- decorated table and still wearing the remnants of what seemed like an endless rain of confetti, party poppers and colored rice, I struck up a conversation with my neighbor about the sudden onslaught of weddings, only to find that she was in the same boat.

Just as I was getting onto a more interesting topic, the mother of the bride rushed over in excitement, welcoming me and exclaiming her extreme happiness and relief that her daughter was "Just in time to beat the widow's year!"

A widow's year? Indeed, I was soon to be told, a widow's year is one that brings extreme bad luck to newlyweds and is almost guaranteed to see the marriage fail, quite probably with the husband dying.

The impending 2010 lunar new year was to be a widow's year and according to superstition, was not a year to even think about planning a wedding or finding a partner. The Chinese lunar calendar is divided into 24 "solar" periods.

The 10-day period when spring o. cially commences is believed to be a time of yang, or masculine energy. Usually the lunar new year begins before or during the spring commencement period and hence has plenty of masculine energy to go around. 2010 is not one of these years.

2010 begins on February 14. "Spring commences" begins on February 4 – it is over before the new year starts. To make matters worse, 2010 ends on February 3, 2011, one day before the next spring commences period gets underway. Basically, 2010 is completely devoid of yang energy, meaning no husband and instantly turning a woman into a widow.

I am not exactly sure how that will happen and as images of Quentin Tarantino-inspired mass newly-wed-husband murders and young men creeping around corners, constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of death spring to mind, I am hit with a fl ying bonbon, jolting me into the reality that my next few weeks have even more early morning ceremonies followed by lavishlydecked out fl u¬ y-white celebrations and my days will be filled by gushing mothers-of-thebride, hoping that their shotgun, family-fueled decision will keep them from widow-dom and their husbands alive, for at least, the year to come.