Beware of the Chinese New Year Dragon Dance!

Photographing Chinese New Year's events

Now that Chinese New Year's is here, many will be celebrating the year of the Rat. But how can you get a chance to get some good images of the exciting and noisy parades? One easy way is through the internet where you can research your event in order to find out the five points of interest: where, who, what, and when.

This year in San Francisco, the celebration - though it started earlier this week - will be highlighted Saturday, February 23^rd. On this day, the celebration will noisily dance and weave its way through the streets with crowds of people watching. The dragon is very entertaining with its groups of manipulators controlling the head and body of the dragon.

The history of the festival is thought to have started as a Spring festival, celebrated at about the time of a new year - in this case, referring to the Chinese calendar. During this time - according to one legend - a huge beast would come and swallow up men and sometimes even farm animals. One day an immortal god - disguised as an old man - tricked the beast to hunt other prey that existed... and to celebrate the beast's disappearance, were told to display and hang bright red banners and decorations to scare off future beasts, as this color frightened the beast.

This is how Chinese New Year's celebrations started and now the story and customs of this "Spring" festival is honored from one generation to the next. One will see lots of red used during this age-old celebration, along with the exploding firecrackers, to scare away the beast. Another item usually seen in shops and hands of the Chinese are the little red envelopes; remembering that RED is the color that scares away the beast, it is also a color which brings good luck. These little envelopes are usually seen during weddings, Chinese holidays and are typically given by the married to the unmarried. Be careful though; if you find yourself in possession of one of these red envelopes during new year's, don't open it until new year's is over, least you be stricken by bad luck!