BeerHunters

By PhotoSafaris

A Lunar New Year Lionised, Maidstone

Me and my brother have got way behind with our joint journal so hopefully this will be the first of very many back blips for you to enjoy! 
We've been attempting to gain further experience at getting some street shots by attending more local events and this proved to be an ideal opportunity as it was a celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
It had started at midday with an "eye-dotting" ceremony to awaken the Chinese lions who then performed a dance as an important traditional ritual which is said to bring good luck and drive away evil spirits. This was accompanied by a musical ensemble playing equally traditional music of the Shanghai teahouses and Chinese Opera as other performers danced (as can be seen in my brother's extra).
We did have quite a restricted view of proceedings as we had arrived a bit late and the crowd was three people deep by the time we had got our cameras out. We did still manage to get some shots but thought we had missed our chance to get some better images of the lions themselves when the ceremony ended.
We had been on the point of leaving town when we heard the music start up again and realised that the lions had intended to prowl along the main shopping streets in the town all along. After following them on their journey we were finally able to get more of the shots we had been looking to take. I managed to capture the main image just as one of the lions had stopped to engage with the crowds - with the small children in attendance being particularly enraptured.

Groggster

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