Oriental Dragon Run - Chinese New Year With a Carolina Twist

While walking through the lovely little town of Oriental, NC, Thursday afternoon, Susan and I heard loud, enthusiastic drumming echoing through a waterfront neighborhood fronting the Neuse River. At first, we thought it might be a local garage band gearing up for the weekend (except the musicians were able to maintain a discernible rhythm). Tracking down the enthusiastic cacophony, we saw two dozen generally middle-aged participants, dancing around the back yard of a rather ordinary residence, leading a 40' Chinese dragon through its sinuous paces, accompanied by quartet of guys on conga and Celtic drums, with one erstwhile percussionist clanging enthusiastically on an empty industrial fire extinguisher (had a ring strangely resembling a Chinese gong).

It seems we had just run head-on into the dress rehearsal for Oriental's answer to Chinese New Year, the Dragon Run.

Actually, Oriental residents generally run the dragon twice on New Years Eve (that's occidental NYE, December 31), once at noon, once just preceding midnight, but this year, one of organizers claimed he was too tired to run the midnight dragon run, and since it was his dragon... well, you get the picture. Not to be deterred, or cheated out of their customary two-dragon run, local organizers ordered a second dragon all the way from China (which is not really a big deal; everything I wear is made in China, but, I digress...).

The new dragon was delivered recently, and rather than wait until next New Years Eve, practically everyone in town turned out to march the dragon up and down the Oriental waterfront, drummers drumming, local children waving brightly colored banners, the rank and file beating pots and pans, or just clapping and shouting as the dragon wove up and down through the throngs of young and young-at-heart, enthusiastically cheering the dragon to whatever end New Years dragons aspire.

What a fun town, even in the dead of winter! I think we've picked the right home port!