Lion Dance!


Gong xi fa cai! Happy New Year! February 8, 2016 is the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year. Lyndon has work off the first couple of days this week and Cosette does not have school due to the holiday. It is like a second Christmas here in SG. There's red and gold decorations every where. Monkeys are every where due to it being the year of the monkey, and we are having a great time experiencing this wonderful holiday. 

Lyndon remarked that he really likes that everyone wishes each other prosperity because that's what he wants. But really, it feels more like you are part of a community. Everyone is wishing each other to be healthy and prosperous, kind of like Spock. 

We went to our happy place here, the zoo. There were a couple lion dances that we wanted to see. The lion dance is our favorite. We saw several last year in New York and the kids loved it. Cosette was an expert at doing head shake like the lion dancers. 

The ones we watched today were different than the typical one that we saw last year where the lion just went around a room. In Singapore the Southern Lion Dance style is typically performed. I'm not quite sure of the difference of it between the Northern style, but I have time to learn before next Lunar New Year. One thing that was different than what we had seen before is the part where the lions go to eat some auspicious lettuce and oranges. The lions would "eat" the lettuce then throw it out to the crowd, and then would toss the oranges and candy out as well. It was really exciting. Everyone in the audience was really into it. The lion came around to all the people sitting on the first row and was "sniffing"around the audience, pretending to eat some of the viewers or nuzzling them. The lion pretended to eat Cosette. She thought it was great fun. Henry got really into the dance and started dancing wildly himself. That is why sometime the video is a little shaky. He was hanging on me and jumping. 

The video is a little long, but we caught the whole lion dance. To call out the lion we shouted "huat ah" which means prosperity. The drums and gongs started and then out come the lions. This show is particularly neat because the lions are lite up. It was really awesome. Gong xi fa cai! I can't stop saying it. The atmosphere here in SG is electric! We will have plenty to tell as the month goes on because the festivities go on for a while. Happy Year of the monkey!

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