Traditions of lion dance have existed in Chinese culture and history for thousands of years. Chinese lions bear very little resemblance to the real lion, which however plays an important part in Chinese folklore. In traditional Chinese culture the lions are seen as peaceful creatures and widely considered as divine animals of nobility and dignity. Through out Chinese history the lion has been used to symbolic strength, courage and wisdom. Since the 3'rd century AD pair of guardian lion statues, can often been seen in front of official buildings and temple's to protect these premises. The pair is often made up of a male lion on the right and a female lion on the left. The right paw of the male lion rests on an ornamental ball and under the left paw of the female lion is a cup. The number of curls on the head of these lions depends on the rank of the officials whose premises they are guarding.

Lion dance has a very long history. The first record of the performance of an early form of the Lion Dance dates to the early Ch'in and Han Dynasties (Third Century BC). There are many different versions over the past years of how lion dance became one of the performing arts in today's tradition to bring good luck, and joy. The one we follow as a lion dance team is "The Lion terrorizing a small village".

The story goes a long time ago in a small village there was a lion that would come down from the mountains to terrorize them. Everyday they would hide in there house at noon to prepare for the lion to come down hoping that it would just go back to the mountains. One day a couple villagers decide to find a way to get rid of the untamed beast. So they seek out a high ranked monk to let them know that this lion has been coming to there village everyday at noon. Terrorizing the village and destroying houses and eating at will. The monk understood and told the villagers that he will go back to the village with them to help them in any way he can. He also said that to have everyone have pots, pans, kettles and any thing that can cause a racket to scare away the beast back to the mountain.

The next day everyone prepared at noon when the lion came down they all banged their pots, pans, kettles etc... to scare away the lion as the monk predicted it scared away the lion. As soon as the lion ran away the high-rank monk followed the lion back up the mountain to hopefully tame the lion. A couple of days has passed and they village has not seen the lion or the monk. They were wondering if the monk was able to tame the lion. A week later the monk returned and talked to the villagers and said that he has tamed the lion with his magical fan. Providing that he also said the lion would no longer bother them anymore except on new years to come down and scare away the evil spirits, to bring joy, happiness, and prosperity.

Compiled by Torrey Tai Le