River Hongbao 2014

The yearly River Hongbao has begun a couple of days ago and will be on until february 8th.

Since some years River Hongbao takes place on The Float, Singapore’s floating soccer field, used for major events like Hongbao and National Day. It’s a great location, surrounded by the water from Marina Bay, the Flyer, Marina Bay Sands and the CBD.

What is River Hongbao?
It is called Chinese New year carnival and is part of the annual Lunar New Year’s celebrations.

The first year we saw it it was beautiful. We were so pleasantly surprised and impressed. So imagine our disappointment the second year when the event looked like a shadow of itself compared to the year before.

Luckily it became better and better the years after that and last year it was it’s beautiful self again;-)!

This year the Chinese lantern builders really outdid themselves!

Already the entrance ‘gate’ to the site is spectacular. Ofcourse there are horses! It IS the Year of the Horse after all.

Isn’t this gorgeous? Walking towards the Float surrounded by lanterns and lights….it’s like a fairytale!

The River Hongbao displays this year are big and beautiful.

Have a look around the terrain with us and be amazed.

We purposely went on New Year’s Eve. That is the moment when Chinese families gather for a traditional dinner to celebrate the new year. We hoped that this would mean that it would not be that crowded. And we were right! Ofcourse there were lots of people, but it was pretty ’empty’ compared to what we knew from other years. During the 10 days of Hongbao 1.1 million visitors are expected!

The God of Fortune always has a prominent place on the site and this year was no exception. The giant lantern towers over everything else and is one of the most beautiful versions I have seen in all these years.

Another prominent role is for this revolving horse, placed centrally on the site.

This tableau with several horses is very pretty as well. The bow and spear of the rider light up (extra). There are more special effects like that, as we will see further on.

In this gallery, all major Chinese festivities are explained. Interesting stuff.

Like this one about the Eve of Chinese New year, the night that we explored River Hongbao.

In the tower is a revolving diorama. Look at all the details. I can understand why Singapore flies in Chinese craftsmen to make all the lanterns and installations on-site. They are true artists in lantern-making!

This enormous gate, with XXL flowers and butterflies is spectacular. Not only is it very pretty, but the flowers open and close all the time. Wow!

Then there are these big pavilions. How impressive are they?!

On it’s front porch is a number of men and women, many of them playing an instrument.

Several of them move, e.g. bending sidewards.

They are more then life-sized. Really gorgeous!

Palm trees, a monkey, a pineapple and a durian.

Made so beautifully! The Chinese craftsmen were not familiar with durians. So they bought some at the market and studied them. One of their conclusions was that the spikes of a durian are irregular. So their durian had to look the same way.

The horse is here still just a frame and the durian is on it’s way to be covered with silk fabric.

Working on the head of the revolving horse.

A horsecart, pulling a paksoi? Why? Not sure…pretty though.

Unlike the rest of this year’s River Hongbao, I was not impressed by the displays around the Chinese zodiac signs. I have seen those way better. Ofcourse we did check out our own signs: the dog (Frits) and the monkey (me).

Ai, our sign’s predictions are not that positive nor uncomplicated. We will have to guard our relationship!

Hongbao is not just a lantern display. There is always a stage/theatre built on site, with lots of seats. Every night there is a different program. It usually involves performances and small shows from China, Korea and Singapore. It can be singing, dancing, acrobatics and so on.

And this is typically Singaporean. The shows have not started yet, the area with the seats is still fenced of, so the Singaporeans already line up in order to conquer a seat. They stand there for quite a while. The whole event is free, by the way. Did you know?! No entry fee! When we lived around, I used to go at least on three different evenings to catch severasl performances. This year it will just be this one time.

There always is a celebration of all things Chinese and Asian on Hongbao. So the festival also includes a whole street food section, demonstrations in calligraphy and so on.
More about that in my second post about this year’s River Hongbao.

Which lanterns impressed you most? Did you visit Hongbao yourself? If not, be sure to catch it!