Chinese New Year

This month we celebrate the Chinese New Year on February 19th. We wish all our Chinese members Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Our only decorations at the baby centre.

The lion dance is an important tradition in China and South East Asian countries. Usually the dance is part of festivities like Chinese New Year, the openings of restaurants and sometimes at weddings. If well-performed, the lion dance is believed to bring good luck and happiness.

Although lions are not native in China, they came to this country via the famous Silk Road. Rulers in what is today Iran and Afghanistan sent lions to the Chinese emperors as gifts in order to get the right to trade with Silk Road merchants. The lion dance dates back to the Han Dynasty (205 B.C. to 220 A.D in China) and during the Tang Dynasty (716-907 A.D.) it was at its peak.

The lion dance is enacted by two dancers. One handles the head, made out of strong but light materials like paper-mache and bamboo, the other plays the body and the tail under a cloth that is attached to the head. The 'animal' is accompanied by three musicians, playing a large drum, cymbals and a gong. A Little Buddha teases it with a fan or a giant ball. The head dancer can move the lion's eyes, mouth and ears for expression of moods.
The lion dance combines art, history and kung fu moves. Normally the performers are kung fu practitioners. Every kind of move has a specific musical rhythm. The music follows the moves of the lion: the drum follows the lion, the cymbals and the gong follow the drum player.

For Chinese people the lion is a holy animal (how right they are!). That is why lions play an important role in Chinese mythology. In China lions and people can be friends. An old Chinese story tells about a lion, lion dances and New Year:

A long time ago a strange creature called 'nien' which sounds like the Chinese word for 'year' appeared in China and horrified and ate men and animals. Neither the fox nor the tiger could fight the 'nien' effectively and in despair the people asked the lion for help. The lion shook his mane, rushed towards the creature and wounded it. The nien hurried away with the tail between its legs. But it vowed to return for revenge. A year later the nien did return. This time the lion couldn't help the people. He was too busy guarding the emperor's gate. So the villagers decided to do the job themselves. Out of bamboo and cloth they produced an image of the lion. Two men crawled inside it and approached the nien. The 'lion' pranced and roared and the monster fled away again. This is the reason why we always have lion dances during the Chinese New Year. They are frightening evil away for yet another year.

In my family we always invite a lion dance troupe to dance for us so that we will have good luck for the year. The lion will go through every part of the house and even roll on the beds to ensure good health for the occupants. Nowadays they even roll on our cars so that we are safe when traveling.

Lion dancers rolling on my little kancil.