AP PHOTOS: Indonesia welcomes the Year of the Snake with dragon puppets and drum displays
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/01/2025 (294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) — From narrow side streets to packed malls, the traditional music and dance of dragon puppet performances have filled this bustling city south of Indonesia’s capital to usher in the Lunar New Year.
Asian communities across the world will begin ringing in the Lunar New Year on Jan. 29, with 2025 designated as the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. Fireworks, parades and other Lunar New Year rituals are centered around removing bad luck and welcoming prosperity.
In Indonesia, where millions of people have Chinese ancestry, crowds gathered in the city of Bohor to watch as drummers interspersed around puppet performers display the traditional dragon and lion puppets, which stretched up to 65 feet (20 meters) long in interconnected segments held by about a dozen people walking beneath.
For weeks before the Lunar New Year festivities, the performance troupe — which can number anywhere from 50 to 100 people depending on how in-demand shows are — practice in the abandoned back area of a small storefront selling coffee and snacks. Women and children from around the area stop by to sit and watch. During slower weeks puppet heads sit unused on a storage shelf.
On Sunday, days before the start of the Lunar New Year, the troupe loaded puppets and performers into the back of a small truck and headed to a shopping mall for a performance. Those who couldn’t fit into the truck followed on motorbikes.
In the mall, hundreds of visitors gathered to listen to the drums and watch the dance of the performance troupe. Rounds of applause greeted the dance, while some in the audience placed “angpau” — an envelope containing money usually given during holidays or for special occasions — into the puppet’s mouth.
___
This story has been updated to reflect it was reported from Bohor, Indonesia, not Jakarta.