Welcome everyone to the Year of the Dragon - allbeit slightly early. But on Saturday night we visited the Chinese Lantern Festival in our International Friendship Garden.
The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. The holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year.
Chūn Jié, in China, marks the beginning of the Spring season. The Chinese Lantern Festival ( 元宵节 Yuán Xiāo Jié ) marks the final day of these celebrations. The lanterns symbolise people letting go of the past year and welcoming the new year with good fortune.
2024 is the year of Dragon based on Chinese zodiac. It's the year of wood dragon starting from Feb.10, 2024 to Jan.28, 2025. The Dragon is the fifth in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac signs. The Years of the Dragon include 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024...
Chinese Dragon is an imaginary animal, also the only fictitious creature in the 12 zodiac animals, which is composed of 9 animals, including the body of a snake, the horns of a deer, the head of an ox, the mouth of a crocodile, the claws of an eagle, and the scales of a fish. The Dragon enjoys a very high reputation in Chinese culture and it represents auspiciousness and imperial power since ancient times.
Chinese people regard themselves as descendants of the Chinese dragon and emperors entitled themselves exclusively as the 'dragon'. It is the token of authority, dignity, honor, success, luck, and capacity. Chinese Zodiac
The personality traits of people born in the year of the dragon are: charismatic, intelligent, confident, powerful and they are naturally lucky and gifted. In everything that they do, they tend to do it to the best of their ability with high standards.
The image of the dragon dance below is from our Multi-Cultural Festival in 2020.
Part of the Lantern Festival was the Chinese Wishing Tree where we were invited to write our dreams onto red paper and hang them from the tree. Experience the tradition of hope and abundance and let the Chinese Wishing Tree grant your wishes and usher in a year filled with blessings
Chinese wishing trees, money trees, and hong bao trees are a big part of Chinese New Year festivities. People toss their red ribbons up into the wishing tree with hope that it will stick and their wish will come true for good fortune in the coming year.
Over the last few months community members and children have been making the lanterns
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity.
and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday
Welcome to Nature Thursday
