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I am officially in love with Chinese New Year. Hands-down-the-greatest-holiday-ever. I don't know what it is about lights that are totally fascinating, but whatever it is: it works. #workit #happychinesenewyear
Think about it: lights make Christmas even more cheery, weddings more romantic, and Santa Fe even more sparkly in the mid-winter snow. Creatively, lights can add a playful whimsy to an object or outline a certain shape in a very modern and clean way. And lanterns? Lanterns kick it up a notch. Especially when they are strung together in the shape of a street-length snake (two of them, actually)!
Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is a public holiday in Singapore granting everyone 2 days off from work to celebrate with their family and friends. Presents, paper-cut decorations, lanterns, and food items are gifted during this 15-day celebration of luck and prosperity. Everything is covered in red and gold, and firecrackers ring throughout the night.
"According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian (Chinese: 年; pinyin: Nián).
Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops,
and even villagers (especially children). To protect themselves, the
villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of
every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they
prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time people saw that
the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers
then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence every
time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red
lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used
firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to
the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk."
This year is the year of the snake, the water snake to be more precise. The snake, also called the junior dragon, is the sixth sign of the Chinese zodiac which consists of 12 animal signs. It is the enigmatic, intuitive,
introspective, refined and collected of the animal signs. People born in the year of the snake are intelligent and wise; they are great mediators
and good at doing business.
"All things will be possible in the year of the snake. Saving money and being thrifty
should be your top priorities. Delusion and deception are common. Stay alert! If
you are planning to get married or to begin a business partnership, be
sure to thoroughly investigate the other person's finances and
background before you legalize the alliance." Alrighty then, note taken.
My sister was born in the year of the snake. She is very much a snake. I was born in the year of the tiger: this sign fits me perfectly. It's amazing how accurate these zodiac signs are.
Last Friday started off with a very enthusiastic and engaging performance in our school gym. The real celebratory Chinese New Year events actually take place this coming weekend. But in order to make sure our entire school could participate, we celebrated a week early. (All of the staff were asked to wear red. I have no red, so I grabbed a wrap off of the back of my couch and threw it on my head. See above photo: drinking green tea to kick off my morning.)
All of the students wore red or traditional Chinese dress. The young man above on the left made a customary hat out of cardboard and beads--fabulous, absolutely fabulous.
In my humble opinion, the best part of the performance was the lion dance. Personally, I believe these costumes represented animals that were part lion/part dog. Sort of like my Chow Chow dog, Charlotte; a dog bred specifically for guarding during the Ming dynasty.
What an awesome costume! It housed two people: one in front, one in back. When the animal would stand on it's hind legs, the back person would lift the front person onto his shoulders. The movements were so accurate, like this animal was really alive and looking at the audience/reacting to their cheers: cocking it's head, wagging it's tail, prancing back and forth. I've watched the videos I made at least a dozen times since last Friday. I was completely mesmerized, I couldn't take my eyes off of them. #chineselions #incrediblecostuming #mesmerizing
The pink dragon was fun to watch. The handlers would follow the leader who held a rod in the air with a ball on the tip of it. The dragon head had to follow the ball wherever it went: up, down, left, right, in a circle, backwards. It was sort of like a game to see if the handlers could keep up. The students went ballistic when it appeared! The whole performance was magical!
That evening my friend Dhivya and I went down to Chinatown to see all of the lanterns. What an incredible display!! The funny thing is: we went specifically to beat the crowds expected for this coming weekend. Really? Look how many people were there . . .
Several times throughout the night, we were at a dead standstill trying to walk down the street. It was one of those moments where you think to yourself: if we were in a movie, this would be the point in the film where the giant tidal wave rounds the corner and everyone gets swept away.
Thankfully that didn't happen. #herdofcattle #sheep #chinatown #crowdedstreets
Lanterns, lanterns everywhere!!
Yes: we each bought a $12 Kimono . . . And yes they are Japanese and have nothing to do with the Chinese New Year.
To ring in the New Year, we bought fresh coconut water. So refreshing!
At the end of the night, we walked the length of the yellow snake: head to tail. Check out how beautiful these lanterns are! Sort of teardrop shaped . . . And the snake is so happy! #yearofthesnake
Excited to begin 2013! Such an amazing night!
May you have an incredibly prosperous and lovely year!
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