Lions, Oh My!

In Chinatown in January, it is cold, but there is electricity in the air. The parade has begun. A group of young kung fu students march in procession down the the closed off route. Thousands of people peer over the barricades and shoulders to watch them perform their routine. A pair of lion headdresses follow them. They are bright red with white, green, black, and many other colors. The performers who don the heads wriggle this way and that, executing acrobatic jumps and flapping the eyelids. Another person trails behind him under the red cloth body. Their legs stick out from under the costume. Children giggle and even adults clap and applaud. Cameras click. Flashes go off. The policemen guarding the borders of the parade route whistle in appreciation.