Chinese New Year celebrations - VIDEO
COLOURFUL celebrations lifted the winter gloom as members of Sheffield's Chinese community marked their New Year.
The performance by Sheffield and District Chinese Group's dragon dancing team marked the beginning of the Year of the Tiger.
Nine men dressed in yellow and red carried the dragon, held aloft on poles, and performed the dance.
The event took place outside the Town Hall on Saturday and was launched by Lord Mayor Coun Graham Oxley.
Before the dancing started, he ceremonially added paint to the green eyes on the dragon's ornately-decorated head.
A stripe of paint was also applied to the dragon's body.
Jiyu Zheng, one of the dancers, said: "The paint is applied to ceremonially bring the dragon to life.
"The display involved dancing, jumping and running around, swaying the dragon from side-to-side."
Crowds gathered to watch the 18-metre dragon perform.
Jiyu, who has been a member of the dancers for two years, said the dance had taken around a year to prepare.
As the dancing went on, young Chinese people, some of whom were children of those in the dragon dance, played instruments such as the cymbals.
The dancers practise their routines once a week at King Ecgbert's School, Dore.
Dragon dancing is supposed to invoke supposed movements of a river spirit, with movement designed to symbolise historical roles of dragons as demonstrators of power and dignity.
The dragons were created as a symbol of Chinese imperial authority.
They are said to bring good luck to people and its qualities include power, dignity, fertility and wisdom.
The traditional dance is now a staple fixture for Chinese New Year celebrations across the world.
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Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
