Chinese Lantern Festival at the Park

FGS and BLIA South Island New Zealand participated in Chinese Lantern Festival organised by Asia NZ at Hagley Park for the 8th time on 2nd and 3rd March. Venerable Juexi, Venerable Miaoyu and BLIA president See Shen Lee had involved more than 50 BLIA members to set up a stall during the event.

There were about 40 food stalls and 20 craft stalls this year. The organisers also invited several groups from China to perform during this event. The variety of lanterns and decorations sponsored were the highlight of this event and visitors were amazed to see them. For instance, lanterns in the shape of mushrooms, dragon and snake attracted many people’s attention.

FGS prepared quite a few delicacies for this event including fried noodles, coriander pancake, laksa, fried dumplings and sweet corns. As it got colder at night, laksa and sweet corns became the food of choice for many people.

Since the Temple was closed for maintenance, Water Drop café has been unable to resume its business as usual. Many customers came to FGS’s food stalls and expressed their concern. They too hoped that the repair would soon come to an end and they could once again enjoy the food served by Water Drop café.

FGS’s craft stall was very popular among visitors. The play of the lion puppets and dragon puppets attracted many visitors and had really good feedback. Apart from that, performers from Shanghai and Sichuan both gave their best during this event and their performances were splendid. The audiences were generous with their applause too.

There were about 80 thousand to 90 thousand people who participated in this year’s Chinese lantern festival which made the Christchurch City look much livelier, especially after the February earthquake. FGS and BLIA wished that everyone in Christchurch could stay blessed this way and be spared from all calamities.