After visiting the Flower Dome for the Celebration of Chrysanthemums floral display, I decided to stay on for the lantern sets display in the Gardens by the Bay since I was already there. If I don’t remember wrongly, the lanterns event held in celebration of the Mid Autumn Festival (中秋节), started in 2013 at Gardens by the Bay but I had not been to the past two events.
With my mask on, I sat on a bench in one corner of the gardens and waited patiently for the lantern lights to come on at 7pm. But they didn’t, not even 15 minutes past 7pm. It was only after I approached a staff that I realised that the lanterns event that evening was the first day, and Minister Khaw Boon Wan was on his way to the Gardens by the Bay to grace the opening of the event at 7:30pm. So I decided to wait for another short while and luckily I did or I would have to miss the event again due to the bad haze condition in the days that followed.
Minister Khaw and his entourage making their way in for the opening ceremony
After witnessing the very simple ceremony to light up the lantern sets by Minister Khaw, I had to rush through the lantern sets (spread out in various locations in the gardens), and even give a few of them a miss because I didn’t want my hubby to wait for me too long for dinner.
Birds Singing in Harmony – at the main entrance of the Gardens by the Bay
Arches of Floral & Insects
This year, there is a total of 17 lantern sets compromising of some 300 handmade lanterns.
Otters and Koi Fish
Year of the Goat – In conjunction of Singapore’s 50th birthday, these specially designed goat lanterns were hand-painted by the public, in the form of a competition
I found the goat lanterns too cluttered up, thus making it a bit difficult to appreciate the painting on them.
Lively-looking Giraffes and Zebras
The 12 Chinese Zodiac. Can you recognise them all?
At the Supertree Grove area, there were also food street, cultural performances, games such as solving lantern riddles (猜燈謎) and huge vertical Chinese chess game, but I didn’t have the time to check them out.
Lions, Tigers & Jaguars
Garden Rhapsody @ Supertree Grove (25 September)
Racial Harmony (Indian & Malay)
More animal lanterns along the way to Dragonfly Lake
Arches of Sea Animals on Dragonfly Bridge. It was quite crowded on the bridge as visitors continued to flood in.
Majestic Sea Palace on one side of Dragonfly Lake
2 of the 3 Dragon Boats on the other side of Dragongfly Lake
I missed out the Elephants, Dinosaurs, Tree of Life and Racial Harmony (Chinese) lantern sets.
Nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable evening going around “hunting” for the lanterns.
The lantern event at the Gardens by the Bay was spectacular. I was impressed with the designs and the quality of the lanterns. I can only imagine that it was a very massive task and costly too, to put up such a public event. Perhaps if would be even better if the event could run for a longer duration like 2-3 weeks or even a month so that more people (both locals and tourists) get to enjoy the lovely lanterns. I think 10 days are a little too short. 🙂
QING Moments 