Kids have been busy making our new Dancing Lion 舞狮 (wǔ shī) for all the kids to participate in a Lion Dance at our Song and Story Time this week!

 

It does not have eyes yet…its eyes are closed at the moment!  On Wednesday at our special Chinese New Year story time, we will have a special ceremony called 开光 (kāi guāng) which means ‘opening light’.  We will use a calligraphy brush to dot eyes on our lion, sometimes called ‘Dotting the eye’, which means our lion will then be able to ‘see’ and be ready for us to make a noise and have a dance together, to scare away any bad things for the New Year!

Here is a pik of a 开光 (kāi guāng) ceremony.

Kids can easily make their own dancing lion head, just grab a cardboard box, paint it (red and gold are good Chinese colours, but there are dancing lions of all colours!!).  Make a cut similar to the one in our piks, so that the mouth drops down, making an authentic looking Dancing Lion mouth, and also makes a hole for children holding the head to see out of!  Then search for some piks of Dancing Lions, and decorate with anything shiny, sparkly, feathery or furry! Don’t forget to dot his eyes before he dances!!!! Use a piece of material for other children to get under behind the lion head….usually only 2 people for head and tail…but of course we will have a long parade of children under our really long Lion!!!!

Here is a song I wrote that children can sing to while dancing with their Lion, don’t forget to bang drums and bash cymbals to make a noise too!  Wooden spoons and pans work really well!!!  Sing the song to the tune of ‘London Bridge’. (For details of some of the other things we will do this story time visit our Chinese New Year Story Time page

看看舞狮跳舞跳 跳舞跳 跳舞跳
看看舞狮跳舞跳
新年快乐

kàn kan wǔ shī tiào wǔ tiào tiào wǔ tiào tiào wǔ tiào
kàn kan wǔ shī tiào wǔ tiào
xīn nián kuài lè

Look at the Dancing Lion dancing and jumping, dancing and jumping, dancing and jumping
Look at the Dancing Lion dancing and jumping,
Happy New Year!

Then replace the bold with 尾巴摇 (wěi ba yáo) ‘shaking tail’, and 转个圈 (zhuǎn gè quān) ‘turn around’.

Happy Dancing!  Get ready to dance and make some noise on Wednesday 🙂