YEAR OF THE RAT

Ah so, Grasshopper.

February 7 begins the Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat. but Honolulu kicked it off early Friday, February 1 with Lion Dances in Chinatown.

After changing clothes at the office in Aiea, I headed back toward Honolulu & Chinatown. Already, the street department had placed "No Parking" signs along the streets, so I drove around several blocks looking for a place to park. Finding a Jaycee parking lot just off River Street, I wandered Chinatown for an hour or so checking out the stores, restaurants and the curiosities.

Vendors were beginning to set up food booths along the streets and shop owners worked toward bringing in boxes of merchandise still on the sidewalks. I bought some food in a little restaurant while waiting for something to happen.
Troupes of mostly young people gathered on the sidewalks trying to stay dry while showers of rain intermittently blew across the city.

Six O'clock came and the police began blocking off streets while more people began to thicken the sidewalks. The adage, "It's better for people to think you're stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" came to mind, so I didn't ask what or how all this "Lion Dance" thing worked. I had assumed there was going to be some kind of Grand Marshall with a formal parade but as it turned out, groups gathered all over the area on Beretania, Hotel and River streets. Somebody said, "there's the mayor" so I figured I must be in or near something official. I turned and saw an entourage with a very tall man in the middle of it. He stood at least a head taller than the nearest Chinaman around.
Within a few minutes a lot of noise began. Trust me it was A LOT OF NOISE. Firecrackers like you have never heard being nearly drowned out by drums, cymbals and gongs sounding much like pots and pan from Mama's kitchen.
Two young men donned each of the many Lion costumes and danced in the area, amidst the smoke of the firecrackers and deafening sounds of the drums, gongs and cymbals.
The dancers went to various businesses where they frightened the evil spirits away by dancing vigorously around the firecrackers and eventually entering the business itself. I watched as they went to all the banks and several other businesses. I wondered if there was a bank around that wouldn't let them in.
Between business blessings/dances/enchantments or whatever they truly were, lions would accept gifts from individuals in the streets. They stepped up and offered gifts of money to the dancer by handing it to him through the mouth of the lion. Feeding the kitty, so to speak.

It was a very friendly and non-intimidating evening.

Saturday morning was much of the same except more food, more people and much better light.

After a couple of hours of this, it was apparent that I'd be filling up my hard drive with more and more photos.
Here's a link to a YouTube video. It is not by me.

With that in mind, I made it back to my car and had lunch. What you ask? Panda Express of course.
Ironically, it was going on the same time people in New Orleans were kicking off Mardi Gras and much safer, streetwise.
These photos are posted at http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=51473102%40N00&q=yearoftherat&m=tags or the slideshow at http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=YearOfTheRat&m=tags&w=51473102%40N00