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
Still Waters 
It looks like extortion to me. I would pay to get them out of there. Those kind of critters scare the life out of me.
LikeLike
G’day Cathy. Great photo’s. Looks like you had a good time. It’s a lot cooler here at the moment, though it is only 5.42am. I have just watered a few pot plants before getting organized for work. I will be putting a jacket on this morning.I am over these stinking hot days. It was 42 here yesterday. Take care. Liz…
LikeLike
That’s my kind of lion! Dianne
LikeLike
The reaction of the woman in picture #6 is priceless! 🙂
Looks like a fun time!
LikeLike
What great fun. The restaurant looks very nice. It seems we Australians are ’embracing’ Chinese New Year celebrations. Rubbish in the media, as usual. We embraced it a decade or longer ago.
LikeLike
How colorful and fun! I lived in a tiny town in Canada for awhile and enjoyed a tiny but fun Chinese New Year there. Great food, too!
LikeLike
Wow! What a festive time you had and excellent photography for OWT ~ thanks,
carol, xxx
LikeLike
What a fun time! The lions and celebration is wonderful! Thanks for sharing! Have a happy week!
LikeLike
Looks like a fun time was had by all!
LikeLike
Oh that is so cute!!!!!! But they are so big, that I’ll bet “cute” is not the word for them, up close. :-))))
We only celebrated Chinese New Year once, and there were no dancing lions.
Elsewhere, I read that 2014 is the year of the Yang Wood Horse. And I liked what I read, about this fact.
Tessa~
LikeLike
That would be fun! Hope you enjoyed your meal, too!
LikeLike
Wow! It looks like fun – but it sounds as if it was very noisy as well!
LikeLike
Very common here in Hawaii, where the majority of the population is Asian. Glad you enjoyed yourself.
LikeLike
Looks like a great time for most of you! Wonderful for a great night out!
LikeLike
Feb. 5
Hooray for your “Books Read” Pages!
When I add something, to my blog, I like to post about it, a bit…. To point new things out, to Dear Readers. In case some are like me, and don’t always look around on blogs, enough. -blush-
I am so thrilled, to have Net-met another book lover! More possible reading suggestions. Grrrreat.
Tessa~
LikeLike
Looks like a fun evening out, but you know what I noticed? I noticed how light the sky was at the beginning and how dark it was at the end. I loved that it showed the time passing in the still photos.
LikeLike
How festive …. Happy New Year…. Michelle
LikeLike