Lucky Dragons

Friday was National Wear Red day to promote discussion about heart disease (a good choice for February/love month) and not only did I wear the color, we also used red balloons for physical exercise, I played songs with red in the title for our music social, and finally we made red dragon decorations for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Of course the residents who wanted to keep their dragons were able to. The rest left them with me to help set the mood for Chinese New Year trivia next week. "They make great BINGO luck talismans" I warned. The names I remember for our dragons were Ming, Scotty, Bo-Jo, and Cool Boy.

UPDATE

Today was Chinese New Year and we brought out the dragons and I asked questions for prizes. Also we looked up what the Chinese believe is important for the residents based on their birth year. At Chinese food outings I usually need to calculate because the menu doesn't go back far enough in years. Anyway, we really learned a lot:

 1. it's lunar based

2. lasts 15 days

3. the "years" (represented by animals) occur every 12 years

4. there is no year of the cat

5. not only is your year supposed to tell you about yourself, but also hints at which year your friends and mate should belong to (or not belong to)

6.  tangerines are usually doled out because they represent prosperity

7. the New Year ends with the Lantern Festival where the well known paper lanterns are hung to light the way to a place to view the full moon

8. cleaning symbolizes getting rid of the bad spirits and is usually done in preparation for the new year

9. 2013 is the Year of the Snake. 1929 was also the year of the Snake.

10. Red is a color that keeps away back luck and brings in good luck. That's why it's used more on wedding days than white which is the Chinese color representing death. To them, wearing white to your wedding would be like wearing a black dress to us.

11. eating squid during the new year festival could mean loss of your job

12. ancient firecrackers were made of bamboo