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To celebrate the Spring Lantern Festival, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) held the New Territories West Lunar New Year Lantern Carnival tonight (February 22) at Tsing Yi Park, kicking off a series of lantern carnivals.
The Carnival featured festive lantern installations and a range of entertainment. Highlights of the programmes included folk songs and dances performed by the Yunnan Honghezhou Song and Dance Troupe, as well as Chinese folk crafts demonstrations such as inside-bottle painting, traditional paper cutting, string puppetry, traditional Chinese lantern craft, and Cantonese opera make-up and costuming by Guangdong, Macau and local masters. Other programmes including Chinese instrumental music crossover with sand painting, children's Cantonese operatic songs, outdoor film screening, handicrafts workshops and a lantern quiz were equally attractive.
The park is decorated with colourful lanterns of different designs such as gods of fortune, the legend of 10 brothers and the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, all becoming hot spots for photo-taking. The lantern installations are open to the public until February 24.
The LCSD will hold two more lantern carnivals on February 23 and 24. Details are as follows:
1. New Territories East (NTE) Lunar New Year Lantern
Carnival
Date and time: February 23 (Saturday),
7.30pm to 10.30pm
Venue : Fanling Recreation Ground
Programme: Spectacular ethnic songs and dances,
Chinese folk crafts demonstrations,
performances by NTE youth organisations,
acrobatics, game stalls, handicraft
workshops, wish-making corner,
lantern quiz and roving entertainment
2. Urban Lunar New Year Lantern Carnival
Date and time: February 24 (Sunday),
7.30pm to 10.30pm
Venue : Hong Kong Cultural Centre (HKCC) Piazza
Programme: Spectacular ethnic songs and dances,
Chinese folk crafts demonstrations,
Cantonese opera excerpts, lion dance,
orchestral performance, handicrafts
workshops, wish-making corner, lantern
quiz and roving entertainment
Apart from the lantern carnivals, "Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage - Exhibition on Craftsmanship of Lantern Making" is running in the HKCC Piazza until March 3. A five-level giant revolving lantern, about nine metres high and handcrafted by local master artisans, is featured in the exhibition. With a giant lotus sitting on the top, the lantern has three levels in the middle part that are constantly revolving and painted with Chinese landscapes, flowers, carp and more. Each corner eave at the octagon-shaped levels is decorated with exquisitely made miniature "palace lanterns". Using ingenious designs and superb craftsmanship, the master crafters have made a stunning revolving lantern out of simple bamboo strips and silk fabric in different colours.
Another thematic lantern display, "Treasures Fill the City", featuring different gods of fortune will continue to light up the HKCC Piazza until March 17.
Ends/Friday, February 22, 2013
Issued at HKT 21:30
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