Chinese New Year - Year of the Rat

We've been invited to a Chinese New Year dinner function to celebrate the Year of the Rat. And it had everything - Chinese banquet, lion dance, raffles, auctions, traditional Chinese music. It was really good fun!
The banquet started with Yusheng, a salad of raw salmon and veggies. We had to toss the salad, throwing the ingredients as high as possible without dropping something off the plate. Apparently the higher you throw the more luck you will have in the New Year.
The group of lion dancers came into the restaurant after dinner and performed their dance. We put money into red envelopes and the lions had to get them. And to make it harder for them we stood up on our chairs waving the envelope high in the air. The person in the front of the lion costume had then climb on the thighs of the second person. The dance really is quite artistic.