There is not much publicity about the Mid-Autumn Festival on the web apart from the newspapers. I discovered this when B asked me where exactly the main festivities would be and I couldn’t find anything much online. In the end I found out that it the main display of Lanterns in the form of the 12 animals of the Zodiac would be on display in front of the mall called The Central, which is facing the Singapore River. This mall is just opposite Clark Quay.
I am glad we went there today but boy was it crowded. There were tons of kids and I just realized that schools break for a week-long holiday this week. Some kids were wearing traditional attire, but I didn’t have a chance to snap a photo of them. But from what I took you can see the bustling crowd. I guess I have to divide this into a couple of posts. This one will show photos I took of the lanterns when it was still daylight.
A pretty pink poster greeted us at the Central Mall. This mall has a winding car park that goes on continually for many floors and it will make you dizzy. My mum will loathe this car park, so I’m warning her about it here. Anyway parking is S$3 here after 5pm.
photo by bookjunkie
The view of the lanterns outside in the hot evening sun. We were still inside the mall enjoying the cool dry air inside, wondering what to have to dinner.
photo by bookjunkie
Part of the festivities included an exhibition of Chinese musical instruments inside the mall. I am sure this might interest tourists, but since they are not too foreign to me I didn’t stop to look and just went by.
photo by bookjunkie
The stage was set for dance and musical performances by troops from Sichuan, China.
photo by bookjunkie
I thought this was a dog but it turned out to be a rabbit. B thought it looked like a rabbit with it’s long ears but I still thought it didn’t even though the label clearly stated rabbit. Well I guess it’s got the buck tooth going.
photo by bookjunkie
Another view of the giant rabbit shaped lantern which was imported from Sichuan in China.
photo by bookjunkie
I thought the tiger looked better. It looked like the traditional depiction of the zodiac tiger in Chinese paper cuttings.
photo by bookjunkie
Now the bull was unmistakably a bull, with its curved horns.
photo by bookjunkie
I thought the mouse was cute because it looked more like a little bear.
photo by bookjunkie
Another shot of the mouse and I think I have to continue this post in Part II with more lantern animals. Hope you’re not getting tired of them. It was pretty fun to walk around looking at them. Although at the end of it you can get quite hot and sticky, so it was back to the mall later to cool off.
photo by bookjunkie
