What is there to do during Mid-Autumn Festival in Singapore?

Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the festivals here in Singapore that I love! I can’t help it; I’m such a sucker for colors and lights ;-).

Most decorations are to be found along North and South Bridge Road and inside Chinatown. Isn’t it like a fairytale?!

During this festival Chinatown’s streets are decorated with and lit up by numerous lanterns and lantern displays. A feast for the eyes. (Until september 28th 2014)

The theme this year is Blooming, hence this gigantic flower tree.

On North Bridge Road you can go up to the pedestrian bridge over the road which gives great photo opportunities.

I love how the colorful lanterns contrast with the dragon facade behind it.

Chinatown is always buzzing and thriving during Mid-Autumn Fest. There is all kinds of special merchandise, on top of the normal stuff that you find there.

One of many, many types of lanterns that you can purchase in Chinatown. I bought two, some years ago, and they hang beautifully in my house in the Netherlands.

It seems like everyone is strolling through Chinatown’s narrow streets during this period, so you can almost walk over the heads.

Pretty crowded, right? Moving forward goes sloooooow!

Ready to go in and mingle? Ok, let’s go and throw ourselves in the crowds.

Around this MRt exit/entry are lanterns, painted by children. Pretty.

Last weekend there were several dragon dances in Chinatown and dressed up stilt walkers were roaming the streets.

A dragon resting against a deep blue wall.

The dragon heads are often so beautiful and impressive!

Angels on stilts

There were performances on a stage at Kreta Ayer Square every evening, a mass lantern walk (see pictures towards the end of this post) and dragon dances (see pictures above). The performances are usually traditional chinese dancing, singing, acrobatics, juggling and martial arts. I have seen some interesting shows in past years, that I really enjoyed, but not this year. Although this made me laugh: there was this C-pop (china-pop) girl on stage, in a ‘sexy’ outfit, making pop-py dance-moves and all, while the audience -all seniors- watched and listened without a blink. How misplaced can you get?! Hahaha…. (The Kreta Ayer program ended last weekend, by the way.)

We stayed for three songs by this C-popsinger. At least, that’s what I made of it. Everything is said and sang in Chinese (Mandarin, I guess), so I could not really tell. See the audience and then her?

You can listen and see for yourself here:

C-pop for seniors.

It reminds me of this dutch advertisement for glasses, where a young dance-instructor enters a room filled with seniors and she starts a workout that clearly is not meant for her audience. (She needs glasses;-)) So funny.

As promised here are some images of the Mass Lantern Walk:

We are ready for the Mass Lantern Walk!

People waiting with their lanterns for the Mass Lantern Walk to begin.

The participants in the Mass Lantern Walk are very divers: old and young, local and Ang Moh.

Usually during Mid-Autumn there is a designated site where really huge, beautiful lantern displays are shown. In past years the Chinese Gardens and the Singapore River and quays were some of the locations for the displays; this year you can find them at the Gardens by the Bay. It is on until september 14th. A wonderful reason to visit the beautiful Gardens by the Bay , and to check out the Orchid Extravaganza Floral Display (until september 21st) at the same time.

In my next blogpost you will find a photo reportage of the Mid-Autumn Festival at Gardens by the Bay.

Which festivals do you like and why? Did you ever celebrate Mid-Autumn festival? Where was that?

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