Happy New Year of the pig

So I was on a walkabout close from Trafalgar Square, London and noticed an amazing amount of people in the streets.
There was a performance on and everywhere red decorations and signs of Happy New Year.
Last time I had seen this kind of celebration for the Chinese New Year was in Singapore many, many winters ago.
I reckoned the best action would be in the actual China Town so I headed towards it.
Many of the major streets between Trafalgar Square and China Town were closed of for motor traffic and it was a spectacular feeling walking around these famous streets like it was in Disneyland.
There were several crowd control measures in place like one way pedestrian streets which made it a bit tricky but I made it to the golden gate in the end.
Most of the shops and restaurants had cabbage and red envelopes hanging from their doors.
Several processions with Chinese lions were performing the traditional lion dance to usher in the new year.
The lion would dance in front of the store front and like a curious cat inspect the package. It would capture the package, spit out the cabbage but keep the red envelope with money.
Suddenly the stewards started pushing people around me into different directions because two of the lions were about to have a show down right where we were standing. This turned out to be great fun and gave splendid close up views of the acrobats hiding in the lion costumes.
Call it a pig, a boar or a hog; I wish you a very red and happy new year!
PS The lions kiss at 1:15

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