Tacoma Photo Gallery | Photos: Monkeyshines 2012

Kung Hei Fat Choi, Tacoma!

The Chinese New Year begins today, and with it, the Year of the Dragon and a special event that Tacomans wait for all year long: Monkeyshines.

We've been hinting at it for the past few weeks, and now we can safely, officially say: it's Monkeyshines day, Tacoma!

We have to confess that Tacoma KOMO is not technically in Tacoma at the moment, so we sent the next best thing to ride along with a member of the Monkeyshines team as the handful of glass ninjas split up to spread joy through Tacoma: Tacoma KOMO tipster/photographer/mother Rebecca Young.

Young made her way down Pacific Ave. with first time distributor, glass artist Mike Monkey (real last name redacted in the interest of keeping things mysterious).

He's a glass artist who works out of a (top secret) Monkeyshines-creating location, where he was invited to join in on the fun by the one and only Ms. Monkey.

The Monkeyshines team met in in the wee hours of the morning at a (you guessed it) top secret location, where they divided up the glassy prizes and split up to canvass the city.

"We went down Pacific, hid them in mostly pretty easy places," says Young. "A shopping cart, bus stop, red box, several parks, big toys. We stood some of the discs up in snow right along sidewalks. We were going to go down South Tacoma Way but ran out too soon."

Young sent us some great photos from hiding the Monkeyshines, and we've got some from one of several top secret Monkeyshines-making meetings, and now we want to see your photos. Find a Monkeyshine today? Send us a picture, via email, Facebook or Twitter and we'll gladly add it to the gallery.

And, Ms. Monkey asks that you think good thoughts (or speak kind compliments) toward the Tacoma Arts Commission, which gave Monkeyshines a grant to "keep it alive and thriving!"

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Need more Monkeyshines? Check out our recap of last year's adventure here:

The most devoted hunters were up at 4 a.m. Thursday with flashlight in hand, ready to scour every nook and cranny of Tacoma for a glimpse of sparkling glass.

They combed the Proctor District, Ruston Way, Sixth Avenue and the University of Puget Sound – and many are still hunting.

About 500 hand-blown glass balls and medallions were hidden throughout Tacoma early this morning for Monkeyshines – an anonymous annual glass art project that turns the city into the setting for a massive Easter egg hunt around each Chinese New Year.

This is the eighth year for the project, and features both hand-blown balls and flat medallions stamped with the image of a rabbit in honor of the Chinese zodiac's Year of the Rabbit. They were made by a team of anonymous artists with help from students in the Hilltop Artists in Residence glassblowing program.

Read more.