The Chinese Dragon Dance

Every Chinese New Year Parade ends with a Dragon Dance. The parades start on New Year's Day and continue for the next fifteen days until the end of the festivities with the Lantern Festival.

The Dragon Parade is a highlight of the festivities. The Dragon represents wisdom, power, and wealth and a very important aspect of Chinese Culture. It is also said that the Dragon Dance performed on New Year's Day scares away the evil spirits and all the bad luck with them...

During the Dance, a dozen or so performers hold the dragon up on poles. They raise and lower the Dragon making him "dance" as they wind through the masses to the sounds of horns, drums and gongs.

The Chinese Dragon Parade is customarily performed along with Lion Dancers, acrobats, kung fu performers, and of course, the drums and horns, all ending in a burst of firecrackers!

The frame of the Dragon itself was traditionally made of wood or bamboo, covered with material. Nowadays, lighter materials are used, such as aluminum and plastics.

For the Chinese Dragon costume, different colors can be chosen. The main body of the serpent could be green, for a great harvest, or yellow, to represent the empire; golden and silver colors symbolize prosperity, and red denote the excitement and good fortune of the festivities.

Dragons vary in length, some reaching up to 100 meters long! It is believed that the longer the Dragon is, the more luck it will bring!

More about those Dancing Dragons!!!

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