Chinese New Year is finally over and we have officially entered the year of the Ox. Turns out that I am an Ox under the Chinese zodiac which means that since this is my year, I am supposed to wear red somewhere on my body at all times to ward off bad luck- and I thought a person was supposed to have good luck in their own year! Anyway, most people choose to wear red underwear in their year but after much debate with myself, I have decided to take my chances and forgo the red undies so we will see what happens...
Chinese New Year (CNY for short) is a HUGE deal here. All the migrant workers return home to their provinces to spend time with their families. I recently read that over 250 million people travel by car/bus and another 5 million by train. That's nearly 75% of the population of the USA to put it in perspective. Crazy. Although the holiday is technically 1 week long, it seems to stretch on for about a month. The kid's school has a big family event so I thought I'd share some pics of the girls in their traditional Chinese clothes (red is the color of luck and symbolizes wealth so you'll see a lot of red everywhere this time of year).
The girls in A's class: Kitty (China), Aika (Japan), Clemintine (France) and little A.
Another tradition around CNY is the Lion Dance. There is usually a drummer and several cymbal players who accompany two men dressed in a Chinese lion costume. One guy is the head, the other is the tail. In the dance that we saw, the "lion" jumps up on pillars which are about 10 feet high with just enough room on the platform for your foot. They leap back and forth on the cylinders with one guy holding the other up on his shoulders- scary! But cool if you're just watching and not participating. The kids loved it of course!
G with some guy in a Chinese opera costume. No idea what the meaning of the costume it though..
The "Lion" perched on the low pillars.
An action shot of the lion leaping from one pillar to the next.
Here you can see the 2nd guy standing on the shoulders of the lower man. Now imagine jumping around on the pillars like that!
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