Picture of the Day: Green Hats

The mahjong tile is lucky, but the hat is not!

There's a Chinese superstition that if you wear a green hat, it means your wife or girlfriend is cheating on you. It's the equivalent of telling everyone you're a cuckold.

When I was in Chinatown this past weekend in a gift shop, I was very surprised to see not one, but two green hats!

The designer of these hats is from Hong Kong!

Both were mahjong-themed, with one all green, and in front had the tile with the character 發 or "prosperity" -- very ironic -- and another with various mahjong tiles randomly all over the hat.

They were designed by a company called Lunchbox by Jacky Lam, who was born in Hong Kong and came to Toronto by himself when he was 17 years old.

This makes it even stranger that he would design hats like this -- does he even know this cultural superstition?!

In addition, whoever does merchandising for this gift shop in Chinatown has no clue either...