With less than a month time, 1st January 2012 was the official opening ceremony and light up for the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown. This year, the theme is "A Bountiful Year of the Dragon” (龙腾大地春 万家庆丰年). Together with my inlaws and bbil's family, we took the MRT down to be part of this festive event.
As expected, the opening ceremony drew a huge crowd with road closures at Eu Tong Seng street and New Bridge road for stage and street performances. Most of the crowd gathered near Lucky Chinatown as this was where the central stage and firecrackers were located.
Buildings and the streets of Chinatown are also being beautifully decorated around the dragon theme. The main attraction would be the 108-metre-long three-dimensional dragon overlooking the entrance of Chinatown. The head of the dragon is at the traffic junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and New Bridge Road with its body flowing along the divider of the roads. This is designed by the students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
Dragon is an auspicious symbol representing power and success which is very well-like by the Chinese wishing for a prosperous year.
The opening ceremony was graced by Guest of Honour, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as he initiates the light up ceremony with the big bang of firecrackers!
Too bad we were stationed at the other end of the road and could not get a view of the firecrackers.
Streets of Chinatown is officially lighted! It's Beautiful and Charming! CNY festive mood has already started with over 500 street stalls selling assorted CNY decorative items, traditional goodies, potted flowers and clothings!
We joined in the crowd, squeezing ourselves through the busy streets and moving inches with each little step. It's hard to get a breather, let alone having a good look at what the stalls are selling. But it is here where you get a good feel of the festive season, where stage shows, celebrations and most stalls are located to represent and signify the importance of Chinese New Year and how it is being celebrated.
It is a SEA of RED but I'm enjoying evey bit of it as this is my favourite festival of all. ^_^
0 comments: