Lion dance in celebration of Chinese New Year at a shopping mall in the United States (2008). Weaving its way through the crowd, the lion pauses to glare at the children below.

Lion Dance
Excerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the north the lions usually appear in pairs. Northern lions usually have long and shaggy orange and yellow hair with either a red bow, or a green bow on its head to represent a male or female.

During a performance, northern lions resemble a Pekinese Dog or Fu Dogs and movements are very life-like. Acrobatics are very common, with stunts like lifts or balancing on a giant ball. Northern lions sometimes appear as a family, with two large "adult" lions and a pair of small "young lions". Ninghai, in Ningbo, is called the "Homeland of the Lion Dance" (????) for the northern variety.

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, karate, east asia, china, taiwan

Ref: 2008_0177

Location: Lakeforest Mall, Gaithersburg, MD

Photographer: Irene Abdou