Celebration of the Chinese New Year in UNFICYP

According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar 2012 is the year of the Dragon. This animal is considered a bloodthirsty beast in Western culture, but in the culture of China the Dragon symbolises luck, benediction and wealth.
The Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as “Spring Festival" the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節 (Pinyin: Chūnjié), since the spring season of the Chinese calendar starts with “lichun", the first solar term in the Chinese calendar year.

In the course of the ceremony the personnel of each Sector performed their special dragon-dance to the Force Commander’s astonishment.

The soldiers of Sector 4 – with their hand-made-dragon – acted out the Evil’s fight with the Dragon. The victory of the Dragon means that there is no more obstacle to the four most important values (health, luck, honour and peace) to be realized during the year of Dragon.

The Force Commander blessed every Dragon at the beginning of the ceremony, and all of the dances were really interesting and colourful – in the opinion of the personnel and the guests.