Lion dance in celebration of Chinese New Year at a public library in the United States (2008).

Lion Dance
Excerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lion dance (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: w?sh?) is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume

The lion costume may be operated by a single dancer, or more frequently by a pair of dancers. The single dancer springs about while energetically moving and shaking the head and operating the jaws and eyes. The pair of dancers, forming the back and fore legs of the beast, mimic the motions of a single animal. The dance is traditionally accompanied by gongs, drums and firecrackers, representing the descent of good luck.

Traditional Lion Dance is done on the ground, while the more modern variation has the dancer upon a set of poles. Both lion dances still eat lettuce for good luck.

For the full content of this article, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_dance. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Keywords:
Chinese holidays, Chinese New Year, festival, celebration, festivities, festivals, celebrations, culture, cultures, anthropology, cultural, Chinese-American, Chinese-Americans, Chinatown, Maryland, Montgomery County, Germantown, documentary photography, editorial, press photography, news, lion dance, kung fu, martial arts, karate, east asia, china, taiwan

Ref: 2008_0133

Location: Germantown Public Library, Germantown, MD

Photographer: Irene Abdou