I love the Chinese New Year celebrations. Looking back on photographs I took recently of a Lion Dance in celebration of the 2012 Chinese New Year celebrations which were taking place in a venue next to Saughton Prison I realise that if a viewer were to see these images without having never heard of Chinese Lion Dancing and the superstitions behind them, they would most likely think, "what on earth is going on"!
The Chinese Lion Dance goes back some one thousand years and to the Chinese, lions express joy and happiness and it is thought that the origin of the Lion Dance at Chinese New Year started through a legend which was handed down through the generations. According to this legend a mythical beast called a Nian (meaning year in Chinese) would come and attack villagers at the same time every year. The villagers asked for the help of a great colourful lion spirit, who came and drove the Nian away with much noise. The following year the people were left defenseless as the lion was away defending the Emperor's Palace. The people improvised and created a false lion out of cloth and bamboo along with noisy firecrackers to drive the Nian away. This was so successful that every year since then the lion dance is performed to frighten away evil spirits and bring luck in with the New Year.
