Why Is Chinese Lion Dancing Essay

Chinese Lion Dancing I was born in Hong Kong and I am also interested in my culture. This essay is a great chance for me to understand more of my culture. The person that I interviewed for my culture was my grandfather. His explanation is very entertaining because he did not lecture on Chinese culture like a boring professor. He told stories about it and made it very easy to understand the Chinese culture. The person that I interviewed for the Chinese lion dancing is my neighbor’s friend named Nathan Xu. My research includes on the history of Chinese New Year and the history of Chinese lion dancing. In Chinese culture, Chinese New Year is the greatest and biggest time of the year. Chinese New Year lasts for fifteen days. Chinese New

Firstly, Hong Kong employees would get twelve paid days off to celebrate with the family and family. There is a tradition during Chinese New Year that the married couples gives red envelope to children or young adult that are not marry for good luck. The couple giving the red envelope to the children means they are wishing the children to have a good year. “It is best to keep the red envelopes for fifteen days in your pillow case and have the children sleep on it. This will bring good luck for the year for the children and wash all the bad luck away” (Sy, 2016). Not only China celebrates Chinese New Year; lot of countries celebrates Chinese New Years as well. Also “artists from different countries are happy to spend Chinese New Year with people around the world, so contribution to its celebration, which is key to Chinese culture going global.” (Hong, 2016) Chinese New Year is also very big in New York. In the past, the celebration parade is only in New York downtown before with lion and dragon dancing. However, now New York allow the celebration not be held in Lincoln Center and share the spirit to the entire New York City (Hong,

Like mentioned before the monster is scared of loud noises and red items. One of the village thought of the idea of having lion dancing to scared away the monster. Lion dancing is usually performs during Chinese New Year’s parades to bring good luck for that year. However, Chinese New Year’s parades are not the only place that lion dancing occurred. For example, since lion dancing brings good luck it is common to see lion dancing during grand opening, birthdays and even at wedding in China. In the beginning of lion dancing only men were allowed to do the dance. However, since the early 20th century that have changed and female were allowed to do lion dancing as well. There are two-difference type of lion dancing which includes the Northern lion and Southern lion. The common dance is the southern lion. One of the main differences between the northern and southern lion is that the northern lion has a lot more fur. Southern lions are also divided into two categories, which includes Fut Shan lion and Hoksan lion. The difference between the two lion is that Fut Shan lion has a higher forehead and curved lips with a smile. However, it is more common to use Fut Shan lion during the festival because the smile has a fierce look in it. That is a symbol to scare away the monster and bad luck away during Chinese New Year