Last Sunday was a wonderful day. Not only did I receive my much anticipated goodies that I ordered for Chinese New Year, we chanced upon a lion dance performance at the supermarket while I went to hunt for toilet rolls. Hah!
When I entered the Aeon Big supermarket, I heard the rumbling of the drums and the familiar beat of the lion dance performance. It came from within the supermarket, and since we've been keeping the children home due to the pandemic and lockdowns, I've decided to call my husband to bring the children in and join me (they were in the car waiting for me). It was indeed a rare treat for us all to be able to enjoy a live lion dance performance as you only get to see it during Chinese New Year or when there's special occasion like an opening of a new company or business! To the Chinese community, a lion dance performance is a symbol of ushering good luck and blessings. I quickly stepped in the line as the queue to enter slowly lengthened.
Once my husband and children joined me, we quickly went in and stood near the crowd of customers who were also watching the performance. The beating of the drum was loud as we were not far from them too.
There were two lions and they were seen passing Mandarin oranges to the customers who stood by, everyone from young to old were cheering and enjoying the blessings from the lions as they received the oranges, touching the lions head while they danced and passed them by playfully.
One of the lions came to us and gave my children and I oranges. It happened so quickly I couldn't even snap a decent photo hence apologies for the blurred image. We even got to touch the head of the lion as it lingered around dancing for us! My children were ecstatic, jumping along and waving at the lion as it danced a playful tease along the beat of the drums!
In the end we requested for one of the staff to help us snap a family photo with one of the lions and they obliged. We obviously weren't camera ready as we were only planning on a quick trip to get the toilet rolls! So here's a picture of us in our home clothes looking happy with the lion while our littlest fell asleep in the carrier, haha!
Being a mother has been really humbling for me, it is because every choice I make affects my family. It's a constant decision making and weighing of opportunity costs that ensures my husband and I build a happy and healthy family. I am glad that my husband is a great team player. In this day and age, we're being bombarded by choices so much that it's easy to just go on autopilot and let the days go by. I could have taken the easy way out by acting on convenience and quickly getting the toilet rolls and leaving the place, but my heart knows that it would mean the world to my children to get to enjoy such live experience, so while assessing the circumstances and still also being cautious of the crowd, I made that call.
After the quick photo, off we went to hunt for the toilet rolls and happily head home. My children still talk about it and would ask me to show them the photos we've taken. They are looking forward to seeing and touching the lion's head again, and hopefully we get to chance upon such performances in the near future.