Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images: Chinese Dragon Dance Video Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Chinese Dragon Dance Video Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Chinese Dragon Dance Video Biography

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The Chinese New Year of the Horse began on 31 January 2014. It is year 4712 on the Chinese Calendar.

The date of Chinese New Year varies each year and the next will be on 19 February 2015, when it will be the Year of the Goat.

One in every six people in the world celebrate Chinese New Year. Customs vary in different parts of the world but everywhere the main idea is to remember family and wish everyone peace and prosperity in the coming year.

The Chinese zodiac follows a twelve year cycle, each of the years being named after an animal.

There are several legends about how the Chinese Zodiac animals were chosen. We have illustrated one of the most popular legends as a story for you to enjoy.

The dragon dance is a kind of folk dance. The players in the dragon dance take coordinated and rhythmic steps and perform to the music of loud gongs and drums. The atmosphere is reinforced by the applause of the audience and the glimmering light. The dragon dance is spectacular and impressive due to the magnificent scene it sets its diversified characteristics and outstanding performance.

The dragon dance is the most spectacular dance performed during the New Year. The dragon is a totem of the Chinese nation. Chinese consider dragons to be friendly and helpful creatures associated with strength, good fortune, wisdom and longevity, who can make clouds and bring them rain. People hope that by dancing the dragon dance it will bring favorable weather and driveghosts out. Therefore, the custom goes on.

The longer the dragon, the more luck it will bring to the community. As a result, communities strive to have very long dragons dancing during the New Year. Some dragons are so long that they require twenty or thirty people to hold up the tail.

Over 2,000 years, the dragon has turned from a symbol of a deity, the emperor and imperial power into a symbol of the Chinese nation. The Dragon Dance, accordingly, has been elevated from asking the gods for rain to expressing people's courage, pride and wisdom.

The dragons are made into different forms, such as the cloth dragon, grass dragon, fire dragon, bamboo dragon,paperdragon, and wooden-stool dragon. The dance accordingly has diversified models and forms.

The cloth dragon has a separate dragon head and body, which are connected by cloth. The longer the dragon is, the more performers there are. One person uses a pearl-like prop to lead the dragon. The dragon will rise or fall, slowly or rapidly. Sometimes, it flies up to the sky, and sometimes it hides under the ocean and breaking waves.

The fire dragon is made with candles put into each section of the dragon body. When performed at night, firecrackers are set off. It makes an excellent scene of the fire dragon shuttling back and forth among the fireworks.

The grass dragon, also called the 'burning incense dragon', is made from rice straw and green vines, with sticks of burning incense inserted into it. Performed during summer nights, the dragon is like a meteor attracting a lot of insects. When the performance is over, the dragon is put into a pool to drown the insects. Therefore, performing with the grass dragon helps get rid of insects.

Drums, cymbals and gongs are parts of the dragon dance. The drummer acts as a conductor and sets the rhythm for the other instrument players to follow. As the drummer beats faster, the ensemble also beats faster and louder. Drum-rolls and gongs may be heard from New Year's Day all the way to the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The Human-Dragon Dance popular on Donghai Island, Zhanjiang City, is renowned as the 'one unsurpassed feat of the Orient'. The performers, usually consisting of several dozen to hundreds of young men with only shorts on, make up a "gigantic dragon" with their half naked bodies. It's quite a grand scene when the human-dragon dances to the passionate and bright tempo of gongs and drums. The local people invented the dance at the end of the Ming Dynasty, to invigorate the frustrated Ming army who retreated to theLeizhouPeninsula. The dance was prevalent during the Qing Dynasty, blending various customs in the unique performance, such as entertaining the dragon, paying homage to the dragon, sacrificing to the sea, honoring the ancestors, and worshiping the God.

The Gundi Golden Dragon was first invented in theSouthern Song Dynasty(1127-1279), and brought to Nanxi Village in Guangdong by Fujian immigrants, the Huang family. It is a duet dance -- two people act as a dragon: one waving the dragon head and the other waving the dragon body and tail.

The Wooden-Stool Dragon has been a Pujiang folk custom since theTang Dynasty(618-907) .The dragon prop is divided into three parts: head, body and tail. As its name suggests, the gigantic dragon is connected by dozens of wooden stools, which make the dragon itself a piece of art, combiningcalligraphy, painting,paper-cuts, sculpture, and the craft of binding, plaiting and pasting. The performance, a combination of mass gymnastics,acrobaticsand dance, is a walking dictionary of the local customs, history, and folk arts and crafts, with great historical value.