Having some experience tracking lions in real life, these lions were formidable – which in English means something akin to, “awe inspiring”, but in French is something more like Bill and Ted’s, “excellent!” Regardless of your point of cultural reference, these lions were both and more.
As they moved through the room, they paused to consider people and spirts before deciding to pounce or move on as they cleansed the room. Like real lions they were the apex predators in the room at least for that moment in time, but unlike real lions they did not blend in with their surroundings one bit. Real lions are hard to see sometimes even when you are standing right next to them as I found myself a few years ago in South Africa. I was the sole guest at a private lodge for several days and was taught by my guides to track.
I was so good at it that I led both men right into a sleeping pride of the beasts – which of course isn’t a good thing at all. All I saw was fear in the eyes of white and black African alike as they silently motioned for me to make a steady but slow retreat. A pride of about twelve lions lay sleeping not 10-15 feet infront of us. I have no pictures of the moment, for fear of a shutter sound waking one of our slumbering sisters, but it was an incredible and exhilirating moment all the same. So perfectly adapted to the tawny hues of the wintry brush, they were impossible for both native and novice to see until we heard them heaving and huffing as they slept on that hot morning.
No, the Chinese lions undulating up and down the courtyard to the ebb and flow of the cymbals and drums today were not in the mood for camouflage like their African cousins, they were on the hunt to destroy or drive out the last of the bad spirits in time for us to welcome in the new year.
Funny, this need for redemption and new beginnings we have, isn’t it? Whether it is leaping over flames or diving into ice-cold water or attending a religious service or individual contemplation, most cultures have this common bond of rituals to mark the passing of chaos and the rebirth of peace or cosmos.
To lift one’s eyes and to say, “Today, I will start anew,” in accordance with some regular astronomical event is a fascinating characteristic that is shared by so many people. But what drives this need? Is it custom, or habit or simply that we get so easily sidetracked from the lifestyles that we have each chosen as “right” for us? Whatever the reason, year after year in culture after culture billions of people seek to begin again.
Of course there is the guilt factor that we have lived our lives incorrectly and somehow need to atone for those bad choices. Do bad spirits really accumulate over time like bad choices and need to be cleansed by a ceremony like the Southern Lion Dance we saw today? Be careful how you answer, because it is a bit more tricky a question than it seems.
Say yes, and pitch your tent firmly in the flow of tens of thousands of years of human cultural evolution. You are a cog in a giant wheel, one man or woman amongst minions who all follow (or try to follow) the ways or teaching of someone or something better than yourself. Say no, and stand firmly in the rational, existential present and reject that spirits or guilt or shared cultural values have have any power over you or your individual destiny. You have no master, divine or otherwise and have only this life and the knowledge that your senses acquire for you to work with.
I have lived a long time and enthusiastically embraced both answers at different times in my life and have found that after the perfume of the censers fades or the stench of the galoise grows faint that there is another choice possible that blends the ideas of the past with those of the present in compatible ways. What really matters is where one’s epistimological pole is set: in the world and in the senses or from beyond one’s immediate surroundings.
I think it is possible to be the master of one’s own life but still leave the door open wide enough to allow for input from elements beyond the ordinary reach of the senses. I may feel that I have sussed my world, but I acknowledge that my world may have other plans. For me this leaves the door open for the unexpected, for revelation and for wonder.
And it was wonder and joy on the children’s faces that I saw this afternoon as they watched the lions slink and roar they ways around the room. And when the golden lion let loose his gift of oranges at the end, so many little feet ran forward and little hands reached out for the prizes of that mystical, magical beast.
So, am I cleansed? By writing this yes, absolutely. I am enough of an artiste that I both seek and revel in the redemption that an act of creation brings. Did the lions make this so or would I have written this piece after say, jumping into the frozen lake behind our home instead? My words and thoughts would have been different if did anything else today, so in a way, yes, the lions did bring the writing and the cleansing into being.
In a few minutes it will officially be the Year of the Ox. This year is a year in which it is said that prosperity may be found for those who work hard and perservere. It is also a year in which those who are tolerant and patient may be favored and rewarded for their rightiousness and resoluteness.
OK, the contemplations over . . . let’s feast! (All words and photographs by Laura Kelley)