We welcomed the Year of the Rabbit by attending the Super Saturday Chinese Lunar New Year Lion Dances in Chinatown this last weekend. The streets were closed to traffic, and several groups with drummers and costumed dancers made their way from business to business, putting on some wonderful performances.
Crowds filled the streets while drummers and lions snaked around the neighborhood in a kind of ordered chaos. The temperature was only about 16°F outside, but everyone kept moving, creating a fun heated energy. All the lion dancers were amazing.
In this video, a business proprietress offers a lion some confetti in exchange for a blessing.
The lion costumes were all different colors and elaborately decorated. The one below has a bejeweled bird on its head. And those eyelids could open and close!
Another dragon blesses a business with good luck:
The intersection of Mott and Mosco streets was the heart of the celebration when I was there. Several lions gathered and the crowd grew more intense.
Five lions dance on Mott Street:
Lions and drummers visit businesses on Pell Street:
Deafening fire crackers filled the streets with clouds of smoke.
I tried to capture the insane firecracker noise in this video. How many cell phones can you count? LOL.
Confetti rained down everywhere as all the lions gathered for one last hurrah before nightfall.
"The rabbit is the symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese Culture, thus 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope."
- Shen, I. (2023, Jan.). Lunar New Year 2023—Hopping into the Year of the Rabbit!. Cartus.com
See more photos of the lion dance celebration on my Flickr page.
No comments:
Post a Comment