Enjoying the festival of the Chinese New Year has always been a favourite of ours.
This year we celebrated with friends on Friday January 31 in a restaurant that was having a Lion Dance troupe come in and entertain us.
I managed to take some photos but with so many people and tables and the Lion on the go all the time it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be
Anyway enjoy!
Ready to come in the door
click to enlarge
The lion was accompanied by musicians beating a huge drum, cymbals, and gongs and an additional figure, a Laughing Buddha with a facial mask. This character tempts the lion with a fan or a giant ball.
During the Chinese New Year, it is a tradition for the lion to go from business to business to perform. The business owners “feed” the lion with oranges, a head of lettuce or bok choy which includes a red envelope filled with money. This brings prosperity to the business for the upcoming year.
Feeding the lion with the traditional red envelopes.
And here is leaving us to finish our meal after blessing the business and kitchen
Heres a little bit of written information you might be interested in about the Lion Dance tradition and customs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_dance
http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/GlenDoyle/liondance.html
http://www.eleonora-kungfu.nl/liondance.html
Our World Tuesday can be found here
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