Rice Turtle & Lantern Festival Fair
19 February 2019
This is a tradition on the 15th day of Chinese New Year – Yuan Xiao Jie or Lantern Festival, where Hokkiens mark the day with offerings of tortoises: Rice tortoise and steamed flour tortoises. Additionally, a giant rice turtle made up of 1,400 rice packets of 5kg rice was set up. Devotees asked Mazu for consent to bring home a pack of rice signifying a year of good returns.
The Lantern Festival is also known as Chinese “Valentine’s Day” . The festival also featured a temple fair with myriad of activities such as Chinese knot-tying, instant photography with traditional Han costumes, lantern riddles and traditional Hokkien delicacies. Local getai performance of song and music, traditional Chinese dance by the Singapore Chinese Dance Theatre and exciting acrobatic lion dance by the champion troupe of 2018 National Lion Dance Competition – Times Cultural Arts Troupe were also part of the performance lineup to conclude the festival.