The lion dance is part of traditional Chinese culture. People often perform in the night before the Chinese New Year. They1 perform it for other happy occasions. People think the lion dance can2 good luck and success.
There are many different stories3 how the lion dance began. One of them is like this：Hundreds of years ago，a monster called Nian came to a village in China. The villagers were4 . A lion chased Nian away. A year later，Nian5 again，but this time the lion couldn't help. So the villagers made a "lion" by themselves. Their "lion"danced，jumped and chased Nian away. For this6 ，people began to perform the lion dance before the Spring Festival to chase bad luck away.
There are7 different kinds of lion dances. In the southern lion dance，the dancers8 hard to perform like a real lion. Their "lion" may shake its body. The dance can be funny. The9 kind is the northern lion dance. It has more martial art skills like rolling，leaping and jumping. Both kinds are very interesting to watch，but it takes a lot of10 to perform well.
