One of the oldest traditions in Chinese Kung Fu history is the Lion Dance. The Lion Dance is a tradition that dates back thousands of years and the Chinese consider the Lion to be an animal that symbolizes power, wisdom and good fortune.
THE STORY
The origin of the Lion Dance is centered on its mythical story. The Lion, in Chinese Mythology, originated from heaven. It was a very mischievous creature and would cause great deals of trouble. The Jade Emperor became furious with the animal for being so bothersome and as punishment; he severed the lions head from its body and threw both parts to earth to rot. The goddess of mercy, Kwan Yin seeing the lion, felt pity for him and decided to help. She sent an enchanted red ribbon, to bind the lion’s head with its body “This ribbon can be seen on the back of the lions head”. This red ribbon also had the power to frighten evil spirits. The lion also has a reflected mirror located on the lion’s forehead. If evil spirits confronts the lion, they would see their own reflection and be frightened away.
“Because of this power, people would seek out the lion to bring them good fortune.”
After Kwan Yin restored the lion, she instructed him to seek out the Ling Chi grass, a special grass that would restore the lion’s powers. The Ling Chi grass can be found in the garden of the Buddha who selfishly kept it to himself, as the Buddha also wanted the go to heaven. The lion however was determined to get the grass and waited for the Buddha to go to sleep. Before the lion could eat the grass, lion had to follow the ritual of bowing. The lion first bowed to the left, Heaven, to the right, Earth and to the center, Man. The lion would then cautiously approach the Ling Chi grass and eat. The grass was so powerful that it put the lion to sleep. When awoken, he realized his powers were restored and his dream has come true. The lion again bows the Heaven, Earth, Man and returns to his rightful place in Heaven.
TYPES OF LIONS
There are two types of Lions. The Northern Lion and the Southern Lion. The Northern Lion is very acrobatic and playful. The Sourthern is more aggressive and rigid. Both Lions displays the emotions, happy, sad, and sleepy, anger, fear, and curiosity. Both types Lions are played by two players, the head and tail, and are accompanied by music, the cymbals, gong, and drum. The instrumentation is very important to the Lion Dance as the music follows the Lion and Lion follows the music.
FUT SAN & HOK SAN
There are two types of Southern Style Lions, the Fut San Lion, which has a large wide face, and theHok San Large, which has small narrow face also called the cougar faced lion.
Southern Lions are also categorized as, the old lion and the young lion. The Old Lion is multi-colored and as long flowing white beard. He usually serves as the trademark of a school that has been around for many years. The Old Lion uses very short non-aggressive movements, reserves his strength. The Young Lion normally has two colors, with a long black beard, which usually represents a young school yet to be established. The Young Lion uses larger and more aggressive movements, always wanting to show his strength.
There are many stories, puzzles that are performed by the lion and very often other schools, and organizations would test the lion skill and knowledge by putting out elaborate puzzles and tricks. If the Lion makes any mistakes in solving the puzzle, it would bring dishonor to that school. On many occasions schools would pass puzzles by rather than risk disgrace.
Jow Ga schools are famous through out the world for their prowess with the Lion Dance.