Lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and an auspicious ceremony to scare away evil spirits and attract luck and fortune.
Performers of lion dance dressing in lion costumes mimic a lion’s movements while being accompanied by the ear shattering beating of gongs and drums.
Simply put, it is a beautiful and lively cultural dance that kick-starts the operation of many businesses in Malaysia and many other countries after the holiday of Chinese New Year.
January 26 was the fourth day of Chinese New Year in the Chinese calendar as well as the day Exabytes resumed its business normal operation after the long and enjoyable vacation.
A yellow and red lion danced their way towards the entrance of Exabytes office on 18th floor of Suntech in Penang Cybercity at 8.30am, bringing with them great luck and prosperity.
Amidst cheering and clapping of hands among Exabees, the deafening ‘Tuck Tuck Dong Dong Dong Dong Chang’, ‘Dong Dong Dong Dong….. Chang’ was heard everywhere in the building.
Instead of the popular practice of ‘plucking the green’ by most of the lions, our auspicious visitors this year took a different approach by performing a different feat.
However, before their luck-promising act, they decided to create suspense and danced graciously to entertain Exabees.
This was followed by the throwing of tangerines to the crowd as in Chinese, the pronunciation of tangerines is similar to gold and receiving tangerines is tantamount to receiving gold and good luck.
After the much anticipated dancing and ‘fighting’ between the 2 lions, in all of a sudden, the 2 giant cats calmly squatted down over a tray which held a pomelo, a pineapple, some vegetable, a packet of peanuts and tangerines.
The beating of gongs then slowed down its pace; many of us were curiously wondering what the 2 lions were doing squatting still.
Twenty seconds passed and with one sharp jump the 2 lions bounced away from the tray and loud beating of gongs pursued, leaving us a pomelo with a pineapple head and tangerines arranged in the word ‘cai’ which meant wealth in Chinese.
As our spirit ran high, the 2 lions headed to each department of Exabytes to greet each and everyone of us. But first, they must ‘tour’ our meeting room before making their way to the work place of Customer Service department and then the Technical department.
The lions’ movements were truly agile and upbeat and as they danced beautifully to Business Development and Creative departments for their final feat, flashes of cameras were seen to capture the important moments.
A thousand thanks for the amazing performance of Lion Dance and CEO Chan for inviting good luck, auspiciousness and prosperity brought by the lions.
Finally, this motivating and mesmerizing dance event was wrapped up by group photo taking together with the lions that promised an abundance of great luck and pleasant surprises in year 2012, a brand new year filled with success and happiness.
