Some say it’s not the time to make life decisions, but others are countering the bad luck – or leaving those beliefs behind

At Asiastar Fantasy Inc, a San Francisco gift shop that specializes in Chinese cultural trinkets and décor, customers can choose from a wide variety of red envelopes or pluck a miniature lion dance costume replica from shelves bursting with curios to celebrate the lunar new year. Most animals from the Chinese zodiac are well represented in the gift shop except the one that officially symbolizes 2025: the snake.

“People just don’t like the snake,” said Nancy Yu Law, Asiastar Fantasy’s owner, about the reptile’s negative reputation. When it came time to purchase inventory for her Chinatown shop, Yu Law, 52, stocked limited items emblazoned with images of the snake.