Dimmer lights on festival
Lack of time because of recent changing Covid-19 alert levels has meant the 2021 Lantern Festival celebrating Chinese New Year in Timaru will be limited to the Chinese community and their families.
Chinese community member Kathy Shu said organisers had just over a week to plan the event in earnest.
She said as well as lanterns and decorations, community members would have lunch with sticky rice balls and give children red envelopes with a little money in them, to ensure they had a lucky Year of the Ox.
Lanterns are symbols of happiness, vitality and good fortune and are believed to date back to the Han Dynasty (206BC to 221AD).
It is spring in China and a time when families have meals together and enjoy time with friends. Chinese New Year is usually celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar which is the end of the new year activities (between February 5 and March 7).
Multicultural Aoraki manager Katy Houstoun said the Chinese community loved having the wider community involved and if they had more time they would have included the public.
‘‘It’s fantastic this [Lantern Festival] is being celebrated and acknowledged in Timaru.’’
So far 80 people had registered.