Dance with your dragons - Nian tradition of Chinese New Year

According to a Chinese legend a giant, monstrous creature by the name of ‘Nian’ lwould come down at the end of the year to destroy the fields, and kill them all.To prevent the Nian to play havoc with the land, the villagers sent against it their own two legged beast, armed with roses.

For this reason, the Nian dance is performed annually on Chinese New Year's eve, and because the dance, now known as lion dance is thought to be so helpful or auspicious or both, it is performed on a lot more occasions.