CHINESE CARNAVAL

One of the highlights of this trip was supposed to be the wild parade and celebrations of Carnaval in Mexico City. Big city, so it must be like Carnaval in Rio, right?? Wrong. The only festivities here are in the poorest, darkest, most crime-ridden corner of town, and even then they are minor. A huge surprise and disappointment for us.

Luckily, this year the Chinese New Year craziness exactly coincided with Carnaval!! All we had to do was walk maybe 10 minutes to the 5 square blocks of the local Chinatown.  By day, the lanes had been closed off for tables of seasonal Asian foods, trinkets, and all kinds of snake souvenirs. (This is a Year of the Snake ----Pat was born in a snake year; newborns will be lucky to be like her.)

By night,  the place was as crazy as any carnaval could be. Massive crowds jammed into very narrow streets jostled us like an old wringer washer pushing forward, backward, and sideways. There were Chinese folk dances, martial arts demos, and holiday songs. But the real attraction for the masses was the Lion Dances.

The Lion represents Evil that has entered the village to do bad things. The villagers can scare away the Evil Lion only with loud noises and red colours. So Saturday and Sunday night on every corner and hanging out of windows were the Evil Lions, taunting the crowd. We shot back with strings of ear-splitting firecrackers and red banners. The crush was getting scary as it was impossible to move. It reminded me of Carnaval in Rio ---- chaos and crazy crowds ---- but everybody kept their clothes on. Kung Hei Fat Choi everybody, now I have to go learn Chinese Samba!