Chinese New Year

      This past weekend was the Chinese New Year and the 13th arrondissement has been filled with banging of cymbals, drums, and enough firecrackers to make our 4th of July look like a little kids birthday party.  All around my apartment spontaneous dragon dances and street performances have been popping up, and the red paper from the spent firecrackers crowds the gutters in wet clumps and has taken up permanent residency on the bottoms of all of my shoes.

      

      I dared the cold yesterday and went out to see some of these up-close.  This one was just across the street from my apartment and consisted of some rather scary looking feats of balance with only cement and wet, red paper scraps as cushion.  It appeared to be a dance of some sort of offering to/food for the dragons consisting of small oranges and lettuce, but I'm not quite sure.  

the obligatory string of firecrackers and cause of the deluge of red paper

      

      Little orange trees like this one are absolutely everywhere and at the grocery store there are rows and rows of them that just about everyone seems to be buying.  I want one, but host-mom isn't too keen on houseplants, so I figured that might not be best.

      These guys were watching the purple dragon perform and soon after joined in for a performance that was filled with painful looking feats of one dragon (two people) standing on the backs of a second dragon.  I was content to just watch. 

      I then headed down to l'Hotel de Ville to watch the "opening of the eye of the dragon" ceremony of sorts.  I'm not sure what it's purpose was, but this guy was really nice and dutifully held up his part of the dragon for two hours while standing in the rain.  Of course, that meant that I too was standing in the rain and snow for two hours.  

I couldn't help but wonder what those statues thought of all the color and commotion.  

The head of one of the dragons

      Those flags are a part of the parade that, as you can see, I was unable to see.  There were so many people pushing and shoving and crowded together that the parade had to go almost single file with the police standing hand to hand on either side.  Apparently, this is usual Chinese New Year parade etiquette in Paris.  The costumes that I did see were quite spectacular and all of the bright colors were a welcome change to the usual drab and muted shades of Paris winter.  While I love Parisians and they usually are dressed quite nicely, they certainly sacrifice a bit of joyful color and self-expression in the process.  It seems doubtful to me that every person in Paris decided that black was their favorite color all at the same time.  While it is a trivial matter, it is something that I've noticed that I've been missing, and I look forward to returning to a culture where a blue shirt or green socks don't make you stand out in the crowd.
      The next parade is this coming weekend, and I will be attending with some friends.  I'll try and get some pictures of the actual parade next time, but until then, Happy New Year!
-Kate Alice