The Good Part of Yesterday

[oakenguy]

vozeatscake and her family came up on the train to help us celebrate Chinese New Year, and it was truly awesome.

Let me refresh your memory of how Chinese New Year is celebrated, in one semi-coherent sentence: SMOKE EXPLOSIONS FLYING PRODUCE LIONDOGS ROAM THE STREETS. It's like Calvin & Hobbes designed a holiday.

Now let's try complete sentences: lion dogs (teams of dancers) roam the streets, each with their own rhythm section. For luck in the New Year, homes and businesses set out platters with an envelope of cash, a lettuce and some oranges. The lion dogs 'eat' the food (shredding the lettuce and tossing it into the air, kicking the oranges willy-nilly), and then a member of the Lion Dog Rollicking Rhythmic Support Squad will light a string of firecrackers to scare off evil spirits.

One nice thing about the Boston celebration is that lion dogs are everywhere. I was literally trapped in a doorway when two came to visit the shop I'd just been in. I was so busy taking pictures I didn't even notice the string of firecrackers a foot in front of me until they went off.


--This is the picture an iPhone takes when you're leaping into the air and yelling like Curly Joe while you're hitting the button.

It made me wonder, how cool would it BE if this idea had caught on in other countries, and every nation had their own festival where big oversized characters from their folklore and history roamed the streets? THIS IS IN NO WAY RELATED TO MY LIFELONG DREAM OF CAUSING A THREE STORY TALL PAPER MACHE QUEEN VICTORIA TO RAMPAGE THROUGH LONDON, THAT'S COMPLETE COINCIDENCE.

Comments

[olivetree.livejournal.com]

Oh Bri, I missed your posts.

♥

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

In India, there's lots of mythological things wandering the street during festivals. :D I've always wanted to go!

Also, I've never been to Chinese New Year, and this must be amended!

[clionona.livejournal.com]

Freakin' love Chinese New Year! Straight up Year of the Tiger representin', yo!

[Is there a gang sign for those born in the Year of the Tiger?]

Also, the last sentence made me snarf Diet Pepsi through my nose. Thanks for that. :P

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I'm certain that the 3-story tall paper mache Queen Victoria has no relation whatsoever to the Pantomime Princess Margaret of Monty Python fame.

[that.livejournal.com]

Well, we have the Macy's Thanksgiving Day floats, but they're all of copyrighted characters and the streets are roped off by police, so it kinda lacks the feeling of an eruption of the mass unconscious mind.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

I would so support this Queen Victoria idea. I will volunteer Right Now to set off your firecrackers.
...oh man.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

And they throw paint at you! (Which is way more awesome than it may initially sound.)

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to participate in the Holi celebrations. It looks like so much fun to get paint thrown at you!

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Yes!! One of the Amazing Races took the unsuspecting teams through the middle of a Holi celebration--it looked so cool! (And oh, they were in SUCH shock!)

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

No!

Um.....not consciously...

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

You mean when you make those little claws with your fingers and go "rrawr" that's not a gang sign? It's a coincidence?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

It has potential, though, especially with the way each balloon comes with its own crew of escorts dressed in their colors. There's a fun short story to be written where After the Breakdown little societies and cults have built up around each of the balloons, and on Thanksgiving Day they all rampage through the streets demanding tribute of food and helium.

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

HAHA. My friend lived in International House for Columbia, and got woken up one morning by her friends charging into her room and blowing that paint-powder all over her. XD She took a picture of her paint splattered face, and all I could think was ZOMG AWESOME!

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

The more we talk about this, the more I want to have a version of it here!

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

I think Holi's coming up soon, actually - it's a springtime festival, if I'm not mistaken

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

March 1st!

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

My lab does it most years - we started a couple of years ago, to make a homesick Indian grad student feel better, and we've kept it up since because it is GREAT FUN.
...the other people in the building, well, I am not sure they think the six/eight/ten shrieking grad students running frantically around flaking paint onto other people is as awesome as we do, but we like it a lot.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

How cool! What do you use for the colored powder?

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

SCORE! I'm so wandering by the local Mandir on March 1st. :)

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

There's an Indian spices-and-stuff shop down the street from me that sells bags of it. You can also get it from the internet.