Voting the Best Floral Arrangement at FGS CHCH’s Buddha's Birthday Celebration - Chan Floral Arrangement Pop-Up Exhibition
Since 6 April 2022, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island had held the Buddha's Birthday Celebration - Chan Floral Arrangement Pop-Up Exhibition. At the Floral Arrangement Exhibition, the floral works of Venerable Manshin, the Abbess of FGS New Zealand, were displayed, and were opened to the public to vote for their most admired floral arrangements. Visitors to the Exhibition responded enthusiastically to the voting.
Every visitor behaved like in a treasure hunt, shuttling through every corner of the Temple with a ballot paper in hand to carefully examine and select the best work. To many visitors, all the floral arrangements were equally excellent and it was difficult to select the "best" works. So instead of voting for single best floral arrangement, some of them selected more than one floral arrangements to be their most favoured arrangements. By the 8th of April, 162 people had cast their votes, and floral arrangement No. 9, using Nandina and pink-green hydrangea, temporarily led the race with 72 votes.
The Floral Arrangement Exhibition had received rave reviews with the public praising Abbess's ingenuity in using exquisitely arranged flowers to liven up the Temple, filling the place with a Chan atmosphere. FGS Christchurch Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi praised the floral arrangements for their rich and joyous contents; Louisa Kuo, Advisor to BLIA South Island, thanked the Abbess for her innovative flower arrangements that brought joy and surprises to the Buddha’s Birthday Celebration. BLIA South Island Committee Director Miranda Wu said that the flower arrangements were grand and elegant and they made people happy. Visitors Cassie Ngo and Jenny Tran said that the flowers, colours and pots in the floral arrangements all blended perfectly with one another, something which could seldom be achieved in other floral arrangements. Ms. Anchen from South America was very impressed with every piece of floral arrangement exhibited and passed touching comment on each of the work. She loved work No. 4 most where the flower and pot matched each other perfectly. There were straight leaves and curved branches in the work, as if describing life itself where one must sometimes bend and other times stretch.
The "Buddha's Birthday Celebration - Chan Floral Arrangement Pop-Up Exhibition" would last until 17thApril. With the gradual spread by word of mouth, more and more people came and attended the Temple activities. Under the present difficult pandemic situation, the public had, this time around, spent a different Buddha's Birthday Celebration at FGS Temple South Island.