Catch A Tiger By Its Tail

We braved the masses and headed into the Melbourne CBD (central business district aka downtown) for the Chinese New Year celebration. It opened at 10:30 AM with a lion dance that we ended up missing but there was still ample to see. The celebration was based in the center of what Melbourne calls Chinatown and a large cross-like section of the streets were closed off for vendor booths, cultural entertainment, and of course the lion dances at each of the businesses that paid for the blessing.

Here's a shot down one of the primary and wider lanes.

Down one side of the main stretch that's called Chinatown.

Fireworks drew us to watch the first of several lion dances that we caught. This lettuce was pulled rather high.

        As we were moving on to watch the next lion dance at the next business establishment, a rather long parade came through including this very long dragon.

             We got jostled pretty good with people obsessed with touching it, like it would bring them good luck.

It was cute to see the 6 other lions show up!

Another lion dance for a different business establishment.

The lion getting money from the audience.

This guy gave a $50 dollar bill!! He must be really hoping for an excellent year.

        If anybody finds this costume, Anthony would like one.

Chinese beef jerky!! Yum!! And yes....I was getting sun burnt!

Chinese opera. Too bad they weren't doing a full presentation with movements.

Different lion doing the dance in front of paying businesses. This lion and the masked boy was MUCH more energetic. There is about 4 different lion dances going on at the same time. There's that many businesses that wanted their own lion dances. And each business also had that loooooooong chain of firecracker that you see here. It was REALLY loud.

The masked boy was funny and cute!




A different business.

We stopped into a restaurant for a quick bite and the lion happened to come by so we got an inside out perspective this time.

Getting the lettuce and red envelope (of money)!

The lion is "eating" the lettuce, which means the dancer inside is shredding it then it gets tossed in the direction of the building. I happen to be looking back at something and the next thing I know something cold hits my arm and I look down to see a rather large chunk of the lettuce in the seat. Does that mean I'm extra blessed??

Happy New Year!!

- julie