Hey Hive!
It's time for another local trip because back in 2019-2021 we couldn't really fly anywhere due to travel restrictions and/or safety reasons. During that time, we saw more of our own country and I thought it'd be cool to share some interesting places from Singapore!
4 Feb 2022. Friday.
If you missed the post last week, I started sharing about our experience going to a Chinese New Year event called River Hongbao! I actually never knew about this event but it's an annual event during the festive period in Singapore with carnival games, pretty lanterns and street snacks!
I think this is typically a paid event since it must cost a lot to get all the decorations up, but luckily Sean managed to get some free tickets so we could check it out!
This is the map of the event area:
Last week, we saw a few of the many lantern installations which are themed along various Chinese sayings popular during the New Year and got to the supertrees which were decked out nicely for the celebration!
Speaking of decked out, we also wore some new year clothes (which we haven't done in a few years) for the occasion!
Once we got to the supertrees, it was only a few steps to the main attraction - the giant Cai Shen Ye (or God of Fortune) lantern!
There was a lot of people gathered here, and rightly so of course since this was definitely the biggest lantern of the whole event! I'm not sure what his height was exactly, but it must be a few stories tall since he was towering over everyone! Pretty fitting for a god of course.
So we spent some time here taking lots of photos, and Sean did some goofy poses while I snapped away!
Passers-by probably thought we looked really silly but it's all good since we were having fun and not disturbing anyone.
I opted for a more traditional pose, and Sean managed to angle it so that I looked even taller than Cai Shen Ye himself!
It was kinda tough to get the lighting right but thankfully there was a huge screen right opposite Cai Shen Ye that was playing an endless slideshow of ads and whatnot which would occasionally give us some light.
There were some other smaller lantern installations here too, like this one called Rising After Challenges (or 步步高升), which signifies rising to greater success after overcoming challenges. Pretty fitting for covid imo.
There was a line of people queuing up to take photos with the lantern so we didn't bother queuing up and just admired them from afar.
There was also this lantern, which was called Great Luck Great Fortune, or 大吉大利, which is a very common saying we would use during Chinese New Year to wish everyone good tidings in the new year.
I get that the people were supposed to look cute in this lantern but the girl's face seemed pretty cursed to me.
We took a few last pics of Cai Shen Ye and the closer I got to him, the smaller I felt because of his imposing stature.
After that we headed to the Drinks Corner, which was basically just a line of vending machines. It was pretty warm out especially with so many people around so we looked and see if there was anything worth getting.
But the selection in the vending machines was kinda limited, with mostly "healthy" soft drinks or energy drinks that we didn't care for. We had water with us but it wasn't cold unfortunately.
There was another area that was pretty bright away from the lanterns that looked intriguing.
This was called Nian Hua: Changing Times, Unchanging Aspirations and I thought there were going to be performances here but it turns out it was a gallery of sorts. There was initially a queue when we first passed by this place so we took a short detour before returning when there was less people.
Thankfully our strategy worked, because when we came back it was almost completely empty! So we could take the time to read some of the display.
Turns out this was a gallery of 年画, or new year prints that were engraved onto woodblocks back in the day. These prints feature auspicious motifs, deities or characters from Chinese folklore and would be displayed throughout the year to confer protection upon households, sort of like a good luck charm.
The process of making the prints was very intricate, from an artisan producing a draft to sending it to print and engrave with layers of different colours and finally the painting of finer details by hand!
Unfortunately I don't think there were actual woodblock prints on display but this gallery by the organisers was very detailed, educating the public about the various gods and deities as well.
My family isn't super traditional when it comes to these Chinese customs so I actually didn't know about a lot of these. But Sean told me he's heard of some of these gods before when he was taking Chinese Studies.
It was pretty interesting, and seeing the designs of these old prints gave me a strange sense of nostalgia. This art style was definitely unique to that era and is something I wouldn't dare emulate but I can appreciate.
There was also some general knowledge about Chinese culture in general, and how people would celebrate the new year back in the day. It was interesting to see how our traditions as a society have evolved with the times.
I guess the actual woodblock prints were too difficult or expensive to get even for this short event but it was still a very educational display that went on for quite a while.
I guess this was prepared by a number of school, specifically the more Chinese schools in Singapore that would have studied this as part of their curriculum I suppose.
We were glad to leave the gallery once we had looked at everything since it was getting pretty stuffy and warm in there since there was a plastic enclosure around it to protect the display from rain I guess.
We came across this line of stalls that we initially thought was the food street but turns out they were stalls selling cultural services? You could do some calligraphy, or buy souvenirs and there was quite a line outside some of them!
But it was getting really warm and we just wanted to see what was left before leaving.
We passed by the giant baby sculpture which I believe is just here all the time and not just for this event since it seems to have nothing to do with Chinese New Year.
Turns out this was made by British artist Marc Quinn, who called it 'planet', and made a seven month old sleeping child fabricated from painted bronce and steel. It's designed to give the impression of being weightless and suspended in mid-air and depict the history of his son in early childhood. The sculpture has been here since 2013 and I feel like I've seen it somewhere else before but I can't remember.
Either way, we made it to the actual River for this River Hongbao event, which was perfect since I was wondering why they called it River Hongbao when none of the lanterns we saw so far were on water other than the koi ones on a pond.
There was a spot to view it closer but I think we technically weren't allowed to go there since you had to pay to go even closer and you could also buy a lotus lantern to let go on the river. The proceeds for this would go to charitable organisations so it was for a good cause at least!
There was a bunch of people doing it and we saw all the flowers had ended up stuck in one part of the river, unfortunately.
But we were here for the lantern and it was really cool indeed, with 2 tigers and a very colourful dragon on it surrounded by different flowers!
I'd say this was on par with Cai Shen Ye for the most impressive lantern. But we got chased away since only people who were doing the lotus lamps could get this close apparently. Either way we got our photos even though we couldn't take a selfie with it it was still cool to see!
It was ironic but we ended up at the Welcome Arch at the end of our journey! I guess this was the more official entrance compared to where we came in, but at least we got to see it somehow.
This was such a cool experience and I'm so glad we got to enjoy it together! It's probably one of the more festive things we've done for Chinese New Year other than the usual visiting of relatives.
We took a walk back to the train station where we thankfully could enjoy some air-conditioning. It was such a relief after all that walking and with the bright lighting we could get some nice ootd shots too!
It's tradition to wear new clothes for the New Year but we haven't bought any in the last few years since we never had a reason to, and also since it's quite wasteful. But since it's been a while and I saw this nice dress I couldn't resist.
I think it was worth it though since we looked great although a tad bit overdressed for this outdoor event compared to the other visitors.
It was a nice unique style that I'm glad I tried and I look forward to wearing that dress again should the occasion arise!
Thanks so much for coming along on this journey with us and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Tune in next week for a whole new adventure!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #195 (SG): Admiring Lanterns on the River! 🏮
