Modern Elements Of Cantonese New Year Parade
January 25th, 2010 by Andrew Paine, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
You will see that the New Year parade holds a most important place in Chinese New Year. Learn about the background of the parades in both traditional and contemporary China.
Parades which take place in China during New Year time is the most noteworthy part of the celebration. It is full of colors representing the age old customs of China in an innovative way and bringing forth the beauty of the whole show to the light and showcasing it for the whole world to see. This goes to prove how Chinese still enjoy celebrating their old customs and how they respect the ancient traditions.
The Chinese civilization and its culture dates back to almost five thousand years. In between the culture has gone through number of stages some of which is still quite mysterious and intriguing. The country’s history reveals a strong cultural background which makes the people all the more proud of their traditions.
Today you will find the New Year parade showcasing all those ancient traditions and mixing them up with a modern flavor in order to bridge the gap. The bringing back of ancient traditions serves as a great tourist attracting factor to which the modern amenities are added in order to make them comfortable. Hence the parade acts as a regeneration of ancient Chinese tradition as well as revitalization for all those present there to witness it.
The New Year parade that takes place in China today is based on the typical American marching format along with which there is the ancient traditional Lantern Festival. The soul of the parade is the dragon dance which is exclusively a Chinese tradition. Over the years though different western motivated ideas have been incorporated into the traditional parade such as marching bands etc which are not actually part of the Chinese culture.
The roots of the Chinese New Year Parade lie in the early civilizations that began to come closer on a communal level many centuries ago. With neighborhood links rising into a deep friendship people started to get together and celebrate the coming of New Year in the form of processions and parades.
Today’s Chinese New Year parade is not localized to a neighborhood. Rather it has become a international affair that people from different parts of the world come over to witness whereas others watch the live television coverage at their homes.
The parade is a mix of electrifying performances as well as a display of the artistry present in the Chinese culture. Gorgeous and elaborately designed floats can be seen drifting along with the parade with fancy costumes along with the dragons and lions.
While celebrating New Year parade Chinese people bring forward a profusion of color and sound. The loud sound made by the fireworks is a source of intense enjoyment to the Chinese people during the celebrations and they pay little attention to the norms of noise pollution.
The best attribute of the whole of Chinese New Year celebration is the dragon dance. The puppet dragon is created with paper, bamboo and silk and goes up till the height of about hundred feet. The dragon is put upright by young Chinese people and made to dance to the sound of drums and gongs.
Chinese new year street parades take place annually all over the world. If you’d like to see the colorful animals, including the Chinese new year zodiac rat, please follow the links herein.
