Preparing for Santa Parade

The Christchurch Santa Parade was started by Sir James Hay in 1947 and after 63 years is still taking the Christmas spirit out into the streets of Christchurch. The Parade today boasts over 80 spectacular floats, tens of thousands of participants and hundreds of fantasy costumes. It has something for everyone, music, celebrities, clowns, and of course Santa. The parade is without a doubt the largest & most successful annual event held in the South Island and was always held in Colombo Street in the Christchurch CBD. But because of the February earthquake, this wonderful parade will be taking place on December 4 along Riccarton Road, which is just in front of Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island.

At 6.00pm of November 15, FGS South Island Venerable Miaoyu, Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island upcoming president See-Shen Lee, director Jack Liu, members of the BLIA and Young Adult Division (YAD) that sums up to more than 10 people were gathered for a meeting to plan and welcome this parade. The meeting was also called to discuss about the security, about possibilities of what is going to happen to the temple, the flow of the people of Water Drop Cafe and Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery, car park and so on. It is very important to focus and be aware of emergencies that could be happening on that day. Venerable Miaoyu have also given an idea to invite volunteers from FGS North Island. The members of BLIA were also happy and grateful of the temple for providing such a great place for them to participate in such a big parade in Christchurch.