Lantern Festival @ Glen Waverley

After years of CNY street celebrations in Chinatown, Box Hill, Richmond, Springvale, etc, and years of Asian migration into Glen Waverley making its population 80% oriental, Glen Waverley finally decided to follow suit of street fairs, starting from last year. So today, 15/01 of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, also known as the Lantern Festival, the fair was hosted in Glenny again.

Funny though, the Lantern Festival Fair on Kingsway had very little to do with lanterns. Lantern festivals on 15/01 of the lunar calendar dates at least back to Sui Dynasty (~A.D.600) - that's as far as I have heard of it, in a type of one man talking show called "Ping Shu" - which is basically very skilled storytelling. What I remember was that when a particular hero was young, idiotic and reckless, he got into a fight with the Sui Emporer's third son (whose identity was, of course, unknown to him) at a Lantern Festival Fair and killed him, and from then on went running... Anyhow, I'm sidetracking. But basically, the traditional lantern festival fairs happen at night, and be it Beijing, or Xian (which would've been called Changan in the past), or anywhere else, people would make the most beautiful, exquisite, artistic paper lanterns that lit up streets and houses, and hold competitions, and eat yuan xiao - the glutinous rice balls in plain or sweet rice wine soup (hence it's also known as Yuan Xiao Festival). It was also a romantic occasion for lovers to go on a lantern-sighting (often discreet and unbeknowst to the family) date. In fact, as I have just Wiki'd, Lantern Festivals dates back to Han Dynasty at least 2000 years ago, and Lion and Dragon dances were added to the entertainment in Qing Dynasty... and it would be the Chinese version of Valentines + El Carnaval, if such things indeed exited in that cultivated introversion back then.

Back to Kingway, that's a different thing altogether. Starting from 11am, Kingsway was packed with people browsing through stalls, which sold charcoal BBQ lamb skewers, Tapoyaki by Koreans (with Japanese signs???), Urban Burger, Singaporean Fried Noodles which I was told did not exist in Singapore, Vietamnese Fried Rice Cakes, and, in one lone stall, yuan xiao in sweet rice wine! Then there were other random stalls: one real estate agent (surely tapping into the interest and expertise in property investment of better-off populations ^_^), a message/spa/meditation rep, a bookstore, and a supplements store selling things like Ewe Placenta Essence and Cow Clostrum... The entertainment were at 3 venues, a stage at one end of the stage, with many dance and singing groups performing; a central area, with what I would think the best lion dance group in Melbourne doing lion dance on poles; and inside the building of Village Cinema, where people played instruments. Near the Glen Waverley Library, various Chinese community groups held free Chinese calligraphy and painting sessions for the little ones, and the library itself kindly provided facepainting for the kiddles. So all was entertained.

We spent most of our time watching the lion dancers. They were from Hong De Lion Dance Association (www.hongdelions.com.au) and this was the first time I've seen any performance on poles (which I think is called "Jong" in Malaysia?) except in Jet Li's old Honky movies! The lion dancers would jump from pole to pole, sometimes turning around immediately and other times one person would be swung to another pole by the other! It was truly spectacular to watch. I couldn't believe that they were amateurs who only train once a week. On this site there was some videos from last year's Latern Fest in Glen Waverley, but I think the performance has gotten better this year! (http://www.hongdelion.com.au/en/Gallery/Videos.aspx)

Then we went back home amidst exciting mini-explosions of firecrackers and colourful ribbons and paper blown all over the crowd, and we feasted on dumplings with chives & egg filling, my "wild" mushroom risotto, and red-bean paste and sesame yuan xiao in both plain & sweet rice wine soup. :) Now it's time to dream about laterns illuminating thousands of homes along a narrow, stone paved street, a little creek of trickling water flowing happily next to it, Spring in the air, and let time slow down to a stop...