THUNDER BAY – For Chinese families in Thunder Bay and around the world, the Lunar New Year’s celebrations have begun.
For many families, the traditions surrounding the celebration of the Chinese New Year vary extensively, but for those celebrating at the DaVinci Centre Saturday night the New Year’s Day festivities featured a traditional lion dance.
Thunder Bay Chinese Canadian Association president Edward Chang said the lion dance is a traditional Chinese dance signifying prosperity in the New Year.
“The lion dance brings good luck and he scares away all of the evil spirits,” Chang said.
Performed in a lion costume and accompanied by music the lion dances by imitating a real lion’s movements.
The lion wakes up, dances and blesses those who have come to rejoice.
“He also has a little activity where he takes some lettuce, eats it and finds money within in the lettuce,” Chang said.
“He chews it ceremoniously and spit it out and that denotes that there’s plenty of money to go around for the following year.”
Every 12 years, Chinese families celebrate the year of the rooster and those people who are born during the year of the rooster are persistent, strong and have a good sense of humour.
“Chinese New Year celebrates a different sign for a different animal every year and it’s based on the Chinese Lunar calendar, so it doesn’t always fall on the same day,” he said.
“Most of the time we celebrate the New Year on the weekend following the day, but this year we get to celebrate it the day of.”
Chang added that the Chinese New Year celebrations usually last for about two weeks.
