A tradition that is practiced for the Chinese New Year is the dragon dance. The dragons scare away evil spirits and they bring good luck. Some dragons can range from a few meters to 100 long! The dragons symbolize the storm clouds and life-giving rain. As they preform and dance to the crowds, people would occasionally "feed" the dragons.
The Chinese New Year is a family holiday. Families get together, sacrifice to the gods, and eat. The tet festival is one place they could get together to watch the dragons dance and preform. Also, it is custom for elders to give money to the young for good luck and health for future generations of the family.
All around the world, you can find celebrations such as the tet festivals and dragon dances. Come along with your family to celebrate! The new year starts Feb. 19,2015!
I was just at a Lunar New Year festival this weekend and its just like you say! There were parents giving out li xi and kids fed the dragons lettuce and red envelops. Strangely enough, I saw more Caucasians than actual Asians at the Tet celebration, and you could easily tell which families were the culture ignorant. (Not to be racist, but) Not many of the white parents understood what was going on with the dragon dances and symbolistic costumes, and were obviously confused by the whole goat theme (Year of the Ram!).
ReplyDeleteComing from a family that celebrates the Lunar New Year, I have experience with the activities you've mentioned. The dragon dance was always something I remembered and looked forward to when I was younger. Unfortunately, the dragon dance my family would usually go to see, the one at the Mira Mesa library, stopped performing there years ago. I also agree that one of the biggest symbols or signature of the Lunar New Year is the red envelope since it is unique to this celebration.
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