Happy New Year!
The UK Shaolin Temple, based in Southampton, hosted a celebration for the new year and invited me to tag along.
I already knew the basic legend of the Chinese New Year. That one day the Emporer called the animals (signs of the zodiac) to his temple. The animals raced there but faced a mighty river. I was born the year of the rat and have always been quite proud that due to the rat’s ingenuity and cunning, we won the race…..OK we cheated, we rode on the nose of the ox across the river, jumped off the ox and got to the temple first.
2019 is the year of the pig, who lost in the race because he stopped to have a nap. You might think that this is going to be a bad year, but it’s the opposite! The year of the pig is a celebration and represents luck, overall good fortune, wealth, honesty and general prosperity.
As you can see from the photos, the Shaolin Temple really did put together a fantastic celebration to kick off a year of good fortune.
You can learn more about the UK Shaolin Temple on their website and Facebook page.
Please DO NOT try these stunts at home, at work….anywhere! Everyone pictured has trained for a long time to do these stunts safely, please do not try to recreate them.
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