Last week’s blog was about our Hissho team preparing for the upcoming Dragon Boat Races at the 17^th Asian Festival at Lake Norman, just north of Charlotte, N.C.
This was our 3^rd time participating, and this time WE WON THE GOLD in the B Division. We did it in 59.36 seconds!!
We finished last in our first race, first in the second race and, of course, first in the final race. We are so proud of our team and perhaps next year we will end up in the A Division. Now that we know we can do it, there should be no barrier to just how fast we can cover the 200 meters.
ပိုမိုသိရှိလိုပါက ကျေးဇူးပြု၍ ကြည့်ပါ www.dragonboat.com

Not everyone is present in this photo taken with the medals, but a “Congratulations” goes out to the entire team!

How lucky are we to kick off our blog with a recap of our festive Chinese New Year celebration?!
Eager faces gathered Thursday afternoon at Hissho HQ to kick off the Lunar New Year celebrations. Hisshonians, one by one, received traditional red envelopes for good fortune in the new year.

Traditionally, red envelopes are passed out during the New Year celebrations and almost always contain money – the amount of which should be of even numbers!
Then, with accompanying loud drums and cymbals, a dragon weaved its way in and out of the crowd. Hisshonians placed more red envelopes into the Dragon’s mouth to bring on a little more good luck for the new year!

 

The Dragon (and Lion!) dances are very common during Chinese New Year celebrations. Some believe the loud drums and cymbals combined with the frightening faces of the dancing Dragon or Lion can push bad or evil spirits away. Some more elaborate dragons can employ dozens and dozens of performers!
After the dragon went back to his lair, we played a Chinese New Year-themed game of “backwards charades.” For this, we split into four teams and each team designated one representative who would attempt to guess which Chinese Zodiac animal their team was trying to act out in “charades.” As you would expect, this resulted in lots of laughter, random animal answers and more craziness.
After the laughter subsided and a winning team was declared, we all enjoyed a wide array of sweet desserts, smoothies and fresh coffee to finish ringing in a sweet new year! It was a fun afternoon filled with laughter, good fortune and smiles!
Did you celebrate Chinese New Year? Tell us what you did for your celebrations!