(Newswire.net — December 30, 2013) —
The Wah Lum Kung Fu of Tampa is located at 1702 W. Cass St. (corner of Rome) (813) 253-0161. Sifu Thomas Haase is the Sifu and Head Master at this school. He is a direct disciple of Sifu and Grandmaster Pui Chan who left China during the Communist Revolution and opened his kung fu academy in Boston. In 1979, he decided to build a kung fu temple in Orlando, Florida where Sifu Haase studied and honed his kung fu craft.
Come and see the traditional performance and Chinese New Year ceremony at the Wah Lum Kung Fu School on Feb. 1st in Tampa. Children of all ages and adults are welcome to come and enjoy the festivities. Bring red envelopes filled with lucky money and you will be able to have the lion dance for you and bring you special good luck as it gently takes the red envelope from your hand.
The Chinese lion dance dates back to the Han Dynasty (206BC – 220 AD) where the kung fu practitioners developed the fictitious lion head to resemble the animal that would dance to scare away the spirits that were associated with bad luck at the eve of the Chinese New Year. This lion was designed to be a four legged animal and had a fierce look with symbolic decorations throughout its body that signified strength and spiritual luck that it would pass on. There was also a Buddha character that lived with the lion and was its caretaker. Being a Buddhist animal, this lion only ate greens and fruits being vegetarian and followed the path of its Buddhist caretaker as it would dance to drums and cymbals and a gong that created the rhythms and loud music for it to dance. Firecrackers were introduced to accompany the atmosphere of mystique where the smoke represented the spirits that would be lifted and scares as the lion would dance in its smoke. The loud blast of the fire crackers provided the noise necessary to scare these spirits away for the New Year to be welcomed without fear.
As author and master of Chinese kung fu myself, I was a student of Shaolin kung fu and Chinese lion dancing since age six and still perform and practice this cherished art.