Dragons in the Wet Market

This morning, as per usual, I went to the wet market by our house (fruits, veggies, meat, fish, EVERYTHING!). The first exciting thing was that I found a store a friend had told me about that sells Eddie Bower and Lands End clothes (they're all made out here anyway...). I didn't find those, but I did find old navy shirts and some esprit stuff too. Didn't buy anything, but good to know about...

The second exciting thing was a noise I heard. I heard crazy banging on drums and cymbals. It sounded like a Chinese wake but then when I got closer I saw a huge dragon. Apparently you celebrate the Chinese New Year for two weeks (we still have one to go), and things keep popping up around Singapore. Basically, this dragon, that was made of two people and the decorated dragon costume, was dancing a beautiful dance with two cymbal men and one drum man (with sun glasses). Many people brought their kids to watch, and the dragon was dancing around two oranges (obviously) and a plate of lettuce and other objects that I couldn't identify. It ended up eating the oranges and moving around to dance in front of other stores. I would bet that it has something to do with prosperity - since everything does, but it was really cool!

I then saw a few set up temples in the courtyard of the HDB (Housing Development Board - public housing) complex that houses the wet market. Pretty neat stuff.