Surviving the fire dragon

This is either 2 weeks late or 50 weeks early for next years festival...

            The Mid Autumn Festival is like a Chinese Thanksgiving, although it predates American or Canadian Thanksgiving by a few thousand years.  It is a time to gather with friends during the harvest season and give thanks for prosperity.  The holiday takes place on a full moon and it is a tradition to gaze upon the moon with one’s family as part of the celebration.  People also exchange mooncakes, which I won’t write much more about here except to say that they are beautiful and wonderful and everyone should try some.

            I was excited to see the fire dragon dance, which is a ceremony that takes part in Causeway Bay during the Mid Autumn festival week.  This area used to be a tiny fishing village before it turned into the chaotic jumble of skyscrapers that it is today.   One year the villagers faced disaster after disaster: there was a typhoon then a plague.  After the plague a huge python came in and chomped down on all the livestock that were still alive.  Of course, the villagers decided the situation called for a three day fire dragon dance to scare off the evil spirits, so they made a straw dragon and danced.  Adversary was scared off and life returned to normal until the serpent of global capital slithered in and had the village demolished to make way for shopping malls and high-rise financial buildings.

            I didn’t know what the fire dragon dance was but I pictured some sort of Spanish street party in my head, with dancing, drinking and some sort of fire spinning.  I got to a section of the city where narrow streets were all blocked off to create a dragon run “arena”. I saw a big crowd down one street and wandered towards it.  There was a drum beating a pulsing beat.  I moved to the front by the street as the drummer approached.  I was in prime position and I got out my camera along with everyone else around me.

            The dragon appeared.  It was carried by a long line of men and it was made of straw with incense sticks sticking up and out in all directions.  The front had a line of fangs and a straw head, and men carried balls of straw covered with incense on both sides.  I watched the dragon for a few moments then realized people around me were running and pushing to get away from the street.  The dragon was hissing, snarling and whipping around right at us.  The front of the dragon was far ahead and pulling its midsection in our direction. The incense sticks loomed over my head and smoke filled the air as the drum beat out the dragon’s angry heartbeat.  It was only incense but in the moment it was all real, and I was terrified I would get poked in the eye or set on fire.  And so I clawed at the crowd behind me.  There were drunk angry men, confused looking tourists, and wide eyed children who I didn’t want to crush, but I had to get away from the dragon.  We slammed into the crowd on the sidewalk to get out of the street but still the dragon advanced towards us, it was out of the street where I thought the parade was supposed to take place and had us all against the building wall.  Then, it was retreating and as quick as it had began it was all over.  I watched the people down the street from us as they dashed into the road to get pictures of it then scrambled back out of the way as it hissed and chased after them.  It wasn’t quite the kind of party I expected but it was the closest I’ve ever come to a legitimate showdown with a fire dragon!

            I didn’t really want to go through the whole ordeal again so I went over to Victoria Park where there was a traditional Chinese lantern display.  Again, I thought it would be some kind of big street party and it wasn’t quite that either, but I could use something more mellow after the whole dragon chase.  It was almost all families and Western tourists locked in an epic selfie showdown.

            The lanterns were beautiful.  There were hundreds of traditional pink and gold Chinese lanterns in addition to illuminated castles, tea pots, Buddhas, Japanese style cartoon characters, and tanks.  And of course, dragons, but luckily these ones weren’t real.