12 February 2022

CWS was grateful to receive a grant from the Government of SA - Multicultural Affairs to celebrate the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival (also called Shangyuan Festival).

The festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the Chinese Lunar calendar and is different from the Mid-Autumn Festival (which is known as the Moon Lantern Festival).

Even though the common themes of the 2 festivals featured lanterns as the core element, they have different significance. Yuan xiao lanterns were used as "Chinese valentine" with riddles written on the lanterns to attract boys and girls to come out and guess the riddles to help make contact with each other.

We had performances by dancers dressed in traditional costumes with Chinese music playing in the  background and encouraged children to guess the riddles - both in English and Chinese. The correct ones received a mini lantern!

We had some 600 lanterns given away to children over 2 weekends! It was a fun time even with COVID-19 restrictions!