Finally I got the chance to watch the finals of the National Lion Dance Championship 2010.. Yenling and I rented some camera gears to add more fun to the event.
So, some of us may ask, “How did lion and dragon dance came about?”
Honestly… I don’t really know.. Being nice to all my readers.. I’ve decided to “google” for all of you~!.. yes.. so nice of me…
Anyway, quite a bit of reading.. so you guys can skip the information and enjoy the photos if you want~
So, lets start with why is there Lion Dance… ( I think most of us know this, I hope… haha)
“Long ago there was a Chinese legend that said that a terrible monster (pictured sometimes with features of a lion, unicorn, and ox), a giant by the name of ‘Nian’ lived in the mountains and would come down at the end of the year to terrorize people and animals or even kill them all.
It was discovered that the monster was frightened by loud noises, bright lights, and the colour red.
This is one of the reasons that the Chinese New Year has many loud fire crackers, bright fireworks and lanterns, lion dance performances, and the colour red is seen everywhere to scare the beast away. ”
So after understand how lion dance comes about… we will look into Cai Qing, something that is common during Chinese New Year..
Cai Qing aka Picking the Green
“ The dramatic climax of the Lion Dance is the "Cai Qing" or 'Picking the Green'. The green here refers to vegetable leaves which are tied to a piece of string which also has a red packet attached containing money. The string is hung above the door of the business, shop (or home), and the lion 'eats' both, the leaves and the red packet. Lying on the floor the leaves are 'chewed' by the lion while the musicians play a dramatic rolling crescendo. The lull is broken as the lion explodes back into activity, spitting out the leaves. This is a symbolic act of blessing by the lion, with the spitting out of the leaves signifying that there will be an abundance of everything in the coming year.
A shop, business (or household) being visited by the performers of the Lion Dance will have good luck in the year to come (keep in mind that a visit normally has to be prepaid) and should a family member or the owner of a business stuck his or her head into the lions’s mouth, the year to come will even be more lucky and prosperous. The lions are normally awarded with customary gifts like oranges symbolising wealth or mandarins/ tangerines symbolising luck and red packet containing money. ”
Appearance of the lion
“ The head of the lion is made out of papier mâché and the nearly constant twinkle and movement of the lion’s eyelids as well as the movement of the head and mouth are supposed to enhance the lion’s vitality and longevity, while the tail of the lion sweeps away bad fortune and unpleasant things from last year.
A mirror is attached to the head of the lion. Mirrors are believed to expel negative energy, evil and bad spirits, since negative energy would be reflected backwards, evil spirit would be frightened by their own appearance when looking into the mirror and hence would disappear.
One horn is attached to the lion’s forehead. ”
See the GREEN??? This is call Cai Qing.. Haha..
Some dragon dance performance during the break.. Dragon chasing the pearl..
Some facts about Chinese culture on how dragon dance came about…
“A fairy tale tells the legend: One day, the Dragon King felt some terrible pain around his waist. After consuming all medication he could find, the pain persisted. Without any other option, he turned into human form and sought for doctor's advice. After the inspection, the doctor claimed, "You are not a human." Realising that he couldn't pretend anymore, the Dragon King turned into his original form. The doctor still helped, removing the pain from the dragon’s waist by a small operation and applied medication on the wound. The Dragon King felt relieve immediately. In appreciation to the doctor's help, the Dragon King said this to the doctor, "Dance in gears in the form of a dragon and you shall be granted with smooth weather and great harvests." The news quickly spread and people began to dance in gears built to the form of a dragon to plead for rain in drought seasons. ”
Lion who look a little unhappy with a grumpy face.. =)
Nice experience.. Will definitely attend it again new year.
.
.
.
Information on Chinese culture found on this blog post can be found here.
