LANTERN festival in October?

That was the question my somewhat surprised friend, Brian, now staying abroad, asked when I e-mailed him on the grand celebration to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival in Sibu this year.

DRAGON HEAD: According to feng shui masters, the head of the dragon is found at the site of the temple . The energy or qi of fortune flows from here.

It might be difficult to explain to him the reason for holding a lantern festival at such a time of the year but having himself grown up in Sibu, it was not hard for him to imagine the fun people had with paper lanterns during the Mooncake Festival.

Brian recalled his parents would buy him and his siblings lanterns during the festival. They would hang the lanterns in the front of the house, leaving one for each of the children, so that at nightfall, the children would light and carry the lanterns as they paraded down the road with other kids in the neighbourhood.

When I related Brian’s surprise to my friends in Sibu, they at first were perplexed because lanterns are an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Celebration or Pesta Tanlung as it is called in Malaysia.

According to Chinese tradition, the lantern festival falls on the first full moon of a New Lunar Year — that is Chap Goh Meh, marking the end of the 15-day New Year festivities. The tradition is at least, 2,000 years old.

But why a lantern festival on the eighth full moon instead of the first full moon of the Lunar Year?

According to historians, the lantern festival has been associated with the Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines for a long time.

Although the Chinese throughout the world light their lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival, they celebrate the Lantern Festival on the first full-moon of the new Lunar Year.

There is a logical explanation for this in Southeast Asia. The eighth full moon of the Lunar Year is supposed to be the brightest and clearest, paralleling the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar.

Therefore, it’s the best time to hang up the paper lanterns. After all, the people need not worry about the Autumn chill of the North.

The grand lantern festival in Sibu this year was initiated by Sibu BN Visionary Development Team and hosted by Sibu Municipal Council together with Sarawak Kutien Association, Sibu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sibu United Chinese Association and Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association.

Sibu BN Visionary Development Team leader Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh was particularly excited about the event as it was held in conjunction with the Visit Sibu Year.

As such, Wong, the Second Finance Minister and Minister Environment and Public Health, hoped the event would attract visitors from neighbouring towns who could easily drive over during weekends.

“We intend to host the festival annually on a grander scale as we go along,” he said.

Wong hoped the event would be better promoted in future, noting that in Taiwan, the lantern festival had also begun small and eventually grown to become an international event when the brightly-lit night on Chap Goh Meh attracted foreigners to the country.

There was some significance when the lanterns were lit from Sept 25 to Oct 4 in Sibu. It was the first time the festival was celebrated by the whole community with 7,000 lanterns strung from the Tua Pek Kong Temple to Sibu Gateway.

Like the undulating body of a dragon, its head at the temple gate and tail at the gateway, the long line of lanterns meandered through Jalan Chew Geok Lin into Jalan Channel before entering Jalan Clinic.

At the gateway, the dragon tail was symbolised by a giant swan lantern. In addition to the 7,000 lanterns lining the streets, the hosts also gave away 8,000 more to children on Mid-Autumn Festival night, making the celebration the grandest of its kind ever held in Sarawak and probably Malaysia as well.

During the 10-day festival, the town was painted red. Photos of lanterns by hundreds of thousands were snapped as the people strolled along the streets armed with cameras and hand phones. It was one of the two most photographed events in Sibu. The other was the annual Borneo Cultural Festival.

I told my friends in Australia about the celebration. Logging onto YouTube and Flickr, they were able to see spectacular images of the festival, posted in the Internet for the world to enjoy.

As thousands thronged the streets, the temple and Sibu Gateway on the night of the celebration, Wong was happy to see such a big turnout.

Sibu Municipal Council chairman Datuk Tiong Thai King promised to host a grander festival next year.

Wong proposed to have it at Sibu Town Square, venue of the Borneo Cultural Festival, saying Sibu Gateway could no longer accommodate the crowd.

Two Chinese cultural concerts were held that night — one next to the Chinese pavilions behind the temple, the other at Sibu Gateway.

Lion and dragon dances added to the gaiety of the festivity and drum beats of the ‘24 Festivals’ reverberated through the air.

Songs romancing the moon were sung and Tang Dynasty’s poetries about the roundness of the silver disc recited. The celebration ended with a burst of fireworks in the clear evening sky.

The townsfolks are looking forward to a grander celebration which falls on Sept 22 next year.

Brian asked what I should hope for in next year’s celebration. I told him I wished to see not only lanterns strung along the streets but also held in the hands of children.

Like the festival in Taiwan, I hope the hosts will consider inviting the people to raise Kong Ming lanterns or sky paper lanterns into the air.

These lanterns were first used during the period of the Warring State more than 2,000 years ago as military night signals.

The paper lanterns are like hot air balloons. When lit at the base, they will be lifted into the sky by the hot air.

In modern times, they are not used as wartime signals anymore but symbols for conveying the people’s wishes towards heaven.

Instead of fireworks that have become very common, why not float paper lanterns into the air and wish, in accordance with the Chinese tradition, for ‘the bountiful harvest of the five grains’ as well as ‘smooth wind and rain’.

Imagine thousands of people releasing paper lanterns together. It will be a fantastic symbol of unity.

Of course, this can only work if the hosts coordinate with the airport tower.

In Penang, the mass release of paper lanterns once disrupted air traffic. But lanterns floating in the air to mark the closing of the Mid-autumn Festival in Sibu might not cause this problem because the last flight touches down before 10pm.

Once the airport tower gives the all-clear, the paper lanterns can be released.

Brian shared my excitement of a grander festival next year.

“If it happens, I want to return to be part of the celebration,” he enthused.