New Year pictures
 

I took some pictures of the activities I did for Vietnamese New Year. There are lots more to tradition but what I took were the only things I did. I didn't label the pictures, so I'll explain briefly. In the morning, I went to temple and there was a New Year brunch meal. Afterwards, there was lion dancing. The apartment complex where I live is only a block away from the temple, so after the lion dance, many of the members of the temple went back to the apartment complex to visit each other's homes and socialize. As a note, everyone in the apartment complex are members of our temple. It is considered as good luck to have the lion dance in your home so we invited the lions in. Yes, that is my apartment in the pictures.:p: As tradition, we gamble on New Year. :D We here only gamble three days of New Year. In one of the pictures, you can see we played right in the courtyard because a bunch of people were just hanging around. In some pictures, you can see people everywhere and kids running around. This is a scene you can only see during New Year. It's only during New Year that we visit each others homes. And since we seldom see each other during the year, people often hang around in the courtyard to talk and catch up. We decorated the complex with lights and lanterns to show festivity of New Year. The tree with pink flowers normally blooms in the spring and usually just in time of New Year. So, typically that plant signifies New Year, so people normally have branches of them decorated in their homes. I have a nice vase of it but never got around to taking pictures of it this year. I vainly posted many pictures of myself to show the traditional Vietnamese long dresses. This year I got two. Normally, I just have one made. Usually, there are performances of singing, martial arts, or whatever. This year, we didn't organize one. However, other temples and establishments organized them, but I didn't go.

Well, okay, ask if you have questions. :)

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...view=slideshow

Oh yeah, during the lion dance, these old women walked smack in the middle trying to li xi the lions. It was so funny I stopped taking pictures and videoed it. And people were laughing because the smallest lion tried to yank the li xi off the stick but it couldn't so it continued to dance with the stick hanging from the mouth. :D

I like how everyone is using their cellphones to hold down the gambling money.

Excellent

Cool pics Tulip !!

Sure is a lot of pretty women in the 'hood, especially Tulip. :blush:

Wonderful pics Tulip - thats for letting me into a world/culture I've never experienced IRL.

Word.:joylove:

I like it! Were they fishing for dragons with that stick?

What a beautiful little community that is! Is that where you live? Everyone seems so closely knit and happy. Does Vietnamese coincide with Chinese (Lunar) New Year? And how do you get to be a dragon or lion?

Thank you everyone for your comments. :)

Hihi....they weren't fishing for dragons. At the ends of the "fishing poles" are red envelopes filled with money called "li xi." The red envelopes are attached to a pole so it would be raised high up and force the dragon to do tricks and try to get it. :p:

Thank you, it is where I live. :) Vietnamese and Chinese both use the lunar calendar, so yes, our New Year are the exact day. And to be a dragon head, you'd have to know how to move (dance) it. Usually the dragon performers are martial artists, but sometimes, they just need to know the moves. I was once a dragon head in my twenties.:D But after a year or two of performing, my mom (very conservative and old-fashioned) made me "retire" because I was getting too old. :( I was in my late twenties then. :neutral:

Wonderful Tulip! Thank you for the glimpse.