TARGET 111207

The Dragon Dance

A dragon dance is performed amid fireworks during a Lantern Festival celebration in Chongqing municipality, on February 6, 2012. (Reuters/Stringer)

During the first week of February, all across China, "Lantern Festivals" are held to bring good luck and prosperity to the people. The festivals in each city differ slightly, but each has a form of "The Dragon Dance", following the same pattern of a display of fire and a good-luck dragon.

Shown here are some scenes from the various festivals. If you ever get a chance to go to one of these, you should definitely not miss the chance. They are spectacular.

Villagers perform a dragon dance to pray for good luck and celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lantern Festival in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, on February 1, 2012. The traditional dragon is constructed of bamboo and paper for the festival. (Reuters/China Daily)

Chinese folk artists perform a dragon dance as sparks fly from fireworks to celebrate the Lantern Festival, on February 6, 2012 in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, China. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Participants sometimes get caught in the dragon's firey breath.

This photo taken on February 6, 2012 shows spectators silhouetted as they watch a dragon dance in front of a blacksmith throwing molten metal against a nearby stone wall to create sparks at the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations in Nuanquan, China. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

FEEDBACK MAP

The target for this week is the event of the firey dance, itself, not the location of any one of them. So, if you did the dowsing and found yourself drawn to just about any place in China, (The big green area to the right), give yourself a firey gold star.

If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, please take a look at the following web sites for more:

The Atlantic on-line magazine
Wikipedia
TopMarks Education