south-islandAnnouncements

Lantern Festival-Chance for BLIA to Form Good Affinities

01 / 18


The annual Lantern Festival is back in Christchurch’s Victoria Square again! Commencing on the 14th, the Festival will continue until 15th February. Fo Guang Shan South Island staff and Buddha’s Light International Association South Island members took part in the event with the purpose of promoting the culture and education of Buddhism as well as vegetarian foods to the local community.

The President of BLIA South Island Mr. Almeric Cheng, together with 40 others including BLIA Young Adults Division members, Venerable Juexi as well as Venerable Miaoyu from FGS North Island arrived at the venue to give moral support to the BLIA members.

At Victoria Square, over 50 stalls were set up and two stages were setup for cultural performances. The New Year atmosphere could be felt through the decorations of big traditional Chinese lanterns and animal shaped lanterns.

The weather on the first day of the event was fairly good, and thus allowed thousands of local and foreign visitors to experience the Chinese traditional culture and food.




BLIA South Island Young Adults Division sold sweet corn as part of their fundraising effort towards the youth group. Since two weeks ago, BLIA South Island began preparing over a thousand pieces of coriander pan cake.

The sales for the first day were encouraging, with only two hundreds pieces unsold. The fantastic sales of other foods like fried tofu, noodle and curry laksa were also justified with long queues witnessed from 5pm all the way until 10pm.

All the volunteers and YAD members were well presented in elegant uniforms while they served the customers. Their hard works have been proven by the numbers of Festival goers visiting their stalls.

The FGS South Island souvenir stall was among the most attractive, as the visitors flocked to browse through all the traditional Chinese souvenirs on sale. The volunteers also promoted Yao Hong Ying’s Embroidery Exhibition, which will open in Fo Guang Yuan New Zealand Art Gallery South Island on 28th of February.