Look who came to Park N Shop

Here's why I love living in Hong Kong. You could be grocery shopping when, just as you reach for the milk, this happens:

Early Lunar New Year in Cheung Chau

Christmas is barely over and already the lion dancing has started in Cheung Chau.

Drunken lion

You can't live in Hong Kong without seeing quite a few lion dances during Chinese New Year. Most of them show off their acrobatic skills but this is the first comic lion dance I've seen. Maybe it's a special Mui Wo village skit?

The lion drank beer and got drunk. It staggered up and then recovered in time for the lettuce tearing and lai si. The crowd loved it.

How to invite a lion to dance

During Chinese New Year, there will be lots of itinerant lion dance troupes wandering the area in search of patrons.

If you want to invite one to perform in your home/shop, just hang a lettuce and a lai si above your door. The higher the better – in the old days, the dancers were so skillful they could extract the red packet from three/four stories up.

The lion will "chew" the lettuce, grab the red packet and unroll the scroll of blessing to ensure good luck in your premises all year round.

Kids just love them.

Lion dance drums

Woke up to the lion dance drums today. As Mui Wo is surrounded by mountains, it's impossible to miss the drumming as the lion troupe goes round the town.

The drummers decide the lion's movements.

There are two basic beats: The syncopated rhythm is for playing.

And the drum roll is for bowing and paying respects.

Once you know that, you'll know, without having to look, what the lion is doing.

Will upload photos in the next post.

Enter the lion

We were going out for our usual hike today when we heard the sounds of drums getting louder and louder. Turns out a lion dance troupe was going around Mui Wo bestowing Chinese New Year blessings on all the businesses (for a big fat lai see of course).

Told you there's always something happening in town.