Snake Year

Feb 10, 2013 – Jan 30, 2014. It is a lunar year. New moon is on February 10, and begins the year.  And this year it falls on the weekend. It does not much in eastern lands, but it is convenient in the western lands, where it is an import of a minority.

These (supra and infra) are on Rockwell, in Cleveland's old Chinatown. As i mentioned earlier, the snake statue may not be only snake. Some elevation is needed for sight, and volume.

Brand new, and he is missing his comb and wattles. The neighborhood is a little 'dicey'.

Another Chinese/Asian display in Cleveland, the St. Clair Superior Dvlpmt Corp. will have their 8th annual Chinese zodiac project. I thought it possible, for the snake to be looped about a tree limb. A cobra gives more area to paint. Online, there is a model of the snake. Imagine your forearm as a snake, with your hand as the head, and the part below your forearm coiled like rope [or a pile of extrusion], and the end tail going up. It is closed mouth, no tongue or fangs. Not a winner. People are free to enlarge the snake, and they are warned attachments might be snapped off. Transform the snake to a rattler, or cobra, would add something. 

 PROJECT TIMELINE

November 29 2012                    Call to Artists Released
January 18, 2013                       Artist Proposal Submissions Due
January 25, 2013                       Committee Announces Selected Proposals
February 2013                           SCSDC Announces Selected Designs by Sponsors
February 2013                           Snake sculpture molds given to Artists
April 2013                                 Completed Snake DUE to SCSDC *firm date TBA
May 2013                                  Unveiling of the Snake (invitation only)
May 2013                                  Snakes Installed in the Neighborhood
May—September 2013              Community Arts & Culture Events
September 2013                        Snake Returned to Artists for Touch Ups
September 2013                        Auction Event 

 I have enjoyed seeing these about town before: Dragons, a rabbit, and tiger.

For many outside of the particular oriental nations, the visible exposure is at market.  Paper lanterns are simple, colorful, and pleasant.


How much folklore and mythology of the old country can survive in the new? Items, and events of the celebrating can ease into the new, without the understanding of the greater society. Mixtures of Taoism, Buddhism, and folk religion just are not understood by many outsiders. Celebrations, of fire crackers, lion dances, dragon dances are visually and actively fun. No knowledge required.

 

Budai (Laughing Buddha) sometimes at store, restaurant, and business entrances

The wishing people of good fortune is easy for most people to accept and reciprocate. 'Fortune' means more than one thing. It can mean luck (some abhor the idea of luck, some are hard determinists, others materialists), or providence; or wealth (and again there are people troubled with this (anti-materialists, and we are talking of different sort of materialist)). Mostly we see this as just celebration, and people do not party ascetics.