RANGOON — Chinatown is strung with red paper lanterns and the sound of drums echoes through Rangoon’s streets, animating the stilted dance movements of troupes of colorful lions.
On the eve of the Chinese New Year on Wednesday, about 40 members of the Hang Bao Shi Lion Dance Association went door to door in the commercial capital, visiting homes and dancing for residents in traditional customs that are a symbol of the annual festivities.
For ethnic Chinese, traditional has it that if a lion enters their homes they will have luck, prosperity and fewer hardships in the coming year.
The Hang Bao Shi Lion Dance Association is one of more than a dozen groups that will compete in the city’s annual lion dance competition from Feb. 20-24 on Chinatown’s Sinn O Dan Street in downtown Rangoon. The association has won the competition twice, in 2009 and 2010.
