Year of the Tiger

With the rushed life we are living at the moment, we don’t always get  a lot of time to just be together as a family.  Since Valentine’s Day this year fell on a Sunday and on the Chinese New Year, we decided to take the day to spend it as a family and experience something completely different.  And what a fantastic day it was!  We had an absolutely breathtaking experience in Little China Town in Melbourne.

 

There were tons of decorations, flags and banners decorating the streets and alleyways.

One little stall had spun sugar creations.

We got little gifts from some of the stalls.

There is a beautiful little church in Little Bourke street that was welcoming people in.

My addiction to yum cha even got satisfied!  The kids loved it too, though taking the first bite took some thought.  (They finished all the calamari within minutes!)

There were performance from different disciplines, like tai chi.

 

Then the parades started.

Tons of people were watching the parades through the streets.

 

And of course there were the lions and dragons…

  

 

The detail on the big dragon was really amazing.

  

The performers were magnificent.  They pushed through exhaustion to perform perfect routines.

Crackers were strung from top windows with vegetables for the the lion.  A whole dance was performed, then the lion took the vegetables down from the wall.  (Those guys sure are acrobatic!)

  

There was just so much to see.  My daughter got a good vantage point, though my poor husband suffered!

Three hours later our feet were aching.  We walked back to the car through a street filled with bubbles.

Some more images from the day