For the Chinese New Year, my co-worker Ana suggested that we eat at Denver's Dim Sum hot spot, King's Land Chinese Seafood. The place is huge and usually busy for Sunday brunch, but this day in particular it was packed to the gills. So, 10 people sitting at a round table typically for 8 results in lots of bumping elbows and dropping chop sticks on the floor. The first half hour consisted of repeated asking for more chop sticks until the staff probably thought we were trying to cram even more people at our table!
Next to the cheap and delicious food, the biggest reason we came here for the New Year celebration was the dragons that would be parading through the restaurant. The latecomer of our group this morning, Charles, had insisted that he went as fast as his Ducati (and the law) would allow him and went on to mention parking directly in front of the building so he could hurry in to us. Well, we had almost finished dinner when we began wondering about the dragons and if they would be there this year. Ana ran into the Chinese friend who introduced her to the restaurant two years ago and asked about the festivities. Apparently some one had blocked the entrance with their motorcycle. Charles, also Chinese, slipped away from our table to 'investigate' the coming of the dragons and returned to inform us that the staff said they would appear shortly. We played along for a little bit before giving him a hard time for delaying the fun. X-D
Enter: the dragons
The tradition is to put money in a little red envelope and feed the dragons for good luck in the new year. Charles recommending pretending that we didn't know the proper cultural etiquette and saving ourselves a few bucks. The dragons weaved through the tables and danced around like mongoose, playfully entertaining that they might be 'hungry,' scaring a lot of the smaller shy children.
This parent apparently wants his kid to grow up bad ass and thrust the poor thing into the dragon's face. It was handled pretty well, I think. With parents shoving his hand into a mouth the size of his body, the baby may have flinched but he looked the dragon in the eyes and didn't let go of the envelope. He must have disagreed with the amount taken out of his college fund just to feed a dragon.
So, muchas gracias to Ana for planning an awesome time with some co-workers and friends! It's always fun celebrating a holiday more than once AND within other cultural contexts.
