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To celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will hold three lantern carnivals featuring a variety of entertainment programmes. The first carnival will be held at Tin Shui Wai Park and Ginza Square tomorrow (September 11), to be followed by a carnival at Victoria Park on September 12 and another at Sha Tin Park and Sha Tin Town Hall Plaza on September 13. Admission is free.
The highlight of the lantern carnivals will be performances of Shaolin kung fu, songs, dance and acrobatics by the Henan Arts Troupe from the Mainland supported by the Office for Cultural Affairs with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Regions, Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. There will also be demonstrations of Chinese folk crafts including paper-cutting, clay figurines and woodblock printing by craft masters.
All the carnivals will be decorated with beautiful lanterns and open to the public until September 13.
The Victoria Park carnival will showcase several spectacular lantern displays. Organised by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the traditional hand-made revolving "zoumadeng" lantern named "Giant Lotus Handmade in Hong Kong" is produced by two local paper-craft masters. The lantern is a prime example of traditional handicraft elevated to an art by skill. About nine metres in height with a flowering lotus on top, the gigantic lantern is hand-painted with pictures of carp, golden fish, Chinese legends and the traditional festive events of Hong Kong. Put together by the skilled hands of the masters, bamboo strips and rice-straw paper are tied to form the shape of a lantern, followed by the mounting of decorative satin cloth onto the lantern structure.
Other lantern displays at Victoria Park include the "Charm·Made in Hong Kong" display featuring people and things from the 1960s and '70s, an animal grove and an amusement park, and the "Lantern Wonderland" organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Glittering lanterns in various shapes surrounding the pool in Tin Shui Wai Park turn the park into a colourful garden of lanterns. At Sha Tin Park, splendid lantern installations depicting the themes of family reunion and romantic lovers are exhibited.
Details of the carnivals are as follows:
1. New Territories West Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival
September 11 (Sunday), 7.30pm to 10.30pm
Tin Shui Wai Park and Ginza Square
Programme: Shaolin kung fu, songs and dance,
acrobatics, live music, Chinese instrumental
music, demonstration of Chinese folk crafts,
moon observing activities, lantern quiz,
fortune-telling and lantern installations
2. Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival
September 12 (Monday), 8pm to 11pm
Victoria Park
Programme: Shaolin kung fu, songs and dance,
acrobatics, fire dragon dancing parade,
golden oldies, dancing stage, traditional
hand-made lantern display, message under the
moon corner, demonstration of Chinese folk
crafts, lantern quiz, fortune-telling and
lantern installations
3. New Territories East Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival
September 13 (Tuesday), 7.30pm to 10.30pm
Sha Tin Park and Sha Tin Town Hall Plaza
Programme: Shaolin kung fu, songs and dance,
acrobatics, music theatre, dance, wushu,
magic, demonstration of Chinese folk crafts,
origami workshop, games stalls, lantern quiz
and lantern installations
Apart from lantern carnivals, there are also thematic lantern exhibitions: "Moon·Fun·Playground" at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza from now until October 9, and "Idiom Garden" at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade until September 18.
The "Moon·Fun·Playground" lantern exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza depicts various amusement park facilities such as a 8.5-metre-high roller coaster, a glittering Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round and bumper cars as well as lovely rabbits. Members of the public may test themselves in guessing Chinese idioms at the lantern displays in the "Idiom Garden" exhibition at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade.
An exhibition featuring the winning designs and all entries of the 2011 Mid-Autumn Lantern Design Competition is being held at the Exhibition Hall, 1/F, Low Block, Hong Kong City Hall, until September 17. Admission to the above activities is free.
People are urged not to litter or burn wax while celebrating the festival.
For more information about the lantern carnivals, please call 2591 1340 or visit the website:
www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Entertainment/EntertainmentOffice/events_details/11midautumn_carnivals/index.html.
Ends/Saturday, September 10, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:30
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