As a few of you know, I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and so was my mom. It’s supposed to be a lucky thing – the descendents of the Dragon bearing dragon children, as they were traditionally the leaders of society. Since this year is the year of the Dragon, of course, I had to go celebrate. Here in Dublin, back on January 22nd, there was a big party in the newly “umbrella” covered Meetinghouse square.
For some extra fun, I took my friend’s 7 year old daughter, because I thought it would make for a great day out – and a lovely bit of different cultural exposure for her. When we got there, the gates were closed initially, so we wandered around a little, taking some pictures in the temple bar district – including some of the foam flowers in the top of the trees.
When the gates opened, the first thing which welcomed us was the booming of the drums, loud music, and fabulous red lantern decorations hanging from the roofs and the stage.
Once the crowd was in place, the music was followed promptly by the dragon dance put on by a series of Kung fu and Tai Chi dojos. As the children moved to the front of the crowd to see better, they were mesmerized by the noise and the acrobatics that were shown by the dancers.
Next up was the Tiger dance – which involved 2 acrobats that kept dancing and then balancing atop each other’s shoulders. They had a beautiful costume in “Irish colors” which had the mouth opening and the eyes blinking – which really gave it a personality… especially as the lead dancer took the head and interacted right in the crowd to the faces of the kids – to many screams of delight.
After that, there were some chats and presentations, and C and I went over to make a dragon kite as a fun memory of the day.
When that was complete, we popped out for some lunch, and then came back in time for the traditional fashion show put on by University students from China who were all dressed in traditional costumes – representing the Emperor and his court. As C put it – they looked like the characters from Mulan!
Finally, we bought a pink Lantern for C’s room, and I was invited up on the stage to represent the year of the dragon for 1976 – and received a fabulous 20 euro Gift certificate. When that was done, we then watched the last of the dragon dances of the day – this time, put on by local children – between the ages of 5 and 8. This was a hit with C – because she realized that this was totally something that she could do too.
After a bit of ice cream and the bus home,all that C could talk about on the way was how cool it was to see everything and spend some time celebrating the Chinese New Year. I later heard from H & J, her parents, that she had taken to wearing a red silk robe around the house, pretending that she was Chinese, and talking all about the Dragon Dance and wanting to know more about Chinese Culture. In my view, it was a great day out – but also, mission accomplished to help make this little lady even more aware of the beauty of the world and the cultural differences. 🙂
