Lion Dance

The fifteen days of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations recently ended around the world. Here in Singapore, with Chinese making up around 70% of the population, it’s a big event with all sorts of festivities across the island. I’ve posted on this before but wanted to share with you one of the highlights of the New Year celebrations, the Lion Dance.

Every year a Lion Dance is organised at school for the kids to enjoy. At that time of year you often see little trucks decorated with flags carrying the Lion Dance teams in their brightly coloured costumes to venues where they perform this traditional ritual.

Legend has it that long ago in China, the people were attacked by a fearsome beast called the Nian (“neen”) on the same day every year. The people marked the end of a year by his visits to the human civilization, which is where the Chinese word for year came from. This happened for many years until a wise man thought up a plan to scare the monster away. He constructed a lion suit from brightly coloured material and danced around it in to frighten the monster away. He was aided by the clashing of symbols and banging of large drums to make him seem even more frightening. The lion successfully chased away the Nian and the Lion Dance has been done ever since.

An important part of the dance is the offering of a plate of vegetables and oranges (considered to be lucky) to the lions. The lions ‘eat’ these and then toss them into the crowd – catching a piece is supposed to bring you luck.
Below is a video clip of the kids enjoying the Lion Dance at school. If you look closely you’ll see the lions eyes blinking and the ears moving. The dancers are judged by how well they can make the lions “come to life” during the dance.