Aren’t they beautiful? Lanterns are not only for the Mooncake or Lantern Festival but also popular during Chinese New Year, especially red lanterns. According to the myth, to frighten away the beast called Nian2, red lanterns are one of the things the villagers put outside their houses because it is afraid of red.

Remember we went out twenty minutes after twelve on the first day of Chinese New Year and found the city in a mist? It was still hazy when we took these pictures at a temple called Lin2Hua2Shan1 on our way back. It was around two in the morning so I think the real mist must have mixed with the remaining smoke from the firecrackers so the environment was much foggier.

They have done a really great job in hanging and displaying these red lanterns. The smaller red lanterns are hanged from the top all the way down to the other end, creating a nice atmosphere around the temple. They look like stars aligned neatly in the sky.

There are also different patterns of red lanterns. These three lanterns, starting from large to medium and then small, connects together and brings out one special lantern. At a glance, they look a little bit like vases turned upside down though. I still remember when I was in my primary studies, my teacher taught us to make lanterns and shapes of fish using red packets (ang pow) as house displaying accessories for Chinese New Year. We made “lanterns” similar to these too. The “lanterns” had three layers began with large to medium and small. And we made them with extra care because we were using the red packets. It was a lot of work but it was fun.

The temple also have a pagoda like entrance and exit. From these spots, you can see all the red lanterns, the small ones, the special one and also just a single big red lantern by itself.

Lanterns from big to small.

The tall GuanYin statue is another main attraction at the temple.

Our friends gather together at the temple.

We went home at about 3am and it was still foggy