By ANN TAN
Wednesday September 17, 2008

The Star Online

 

GONE are the days when Chi-nese Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns are made only from coloured cellophane paper or paper. At a lantern-making competition held at the Penang Chinese Town Hall (PCTH) on Sunday night, the participants took the art of lantern-making to another level, including recycled items such as tin cans for their creations.

The entries for the competition which attracted 20 participants, were eye-catching as they were bold in designs.

It was obvious that the lanterns had transformed in line with the changing times with the participants oozing with creativity in de-signing their en-tries. A participant used tin can lids to form the scales of a dragon in one of the entries. The participant used some neon bulbs to embellish the design.

Another creation was a two-in-one lantern. The entry was a dragon lantern made from sty-rofoam with a giant traditional lantern “sitting” inside the first lan-tern.

 

 

Designer lanterns:A visitor admiring a colourful eye-catching creation.

 

Pure delight:SKK(C)Wen Kai pupils Chan Sze Jiet, 10,(right)and Lim Joon Aun, 11, admiring the lanterns exhibited at the town hall.

 

 

 

Blissful moment:Newlyweds posing for photos after exchanging their vows during the mass marriage registration ceremony at Penang Che Hoon Khor Moral Uplifting Society. 

 

 

The cylindrical traditional lantern was complete with draping tassels, printed images of the Jalur Gemilang and portraits of Malay, Chinese and Indian children to represent the three main races of the country.

This lantern looked more vivid with little LED bulbs hanging on it as a battery-operated system was used to move the dragon’s head.

There was also a lantern with artificial owls made of bird feathers standing in it while another was a huge lotus flower lantern with three mini lanterns made of mooncake hung inside. The maker named it the Mooncake Lantern.

The organisers also hung up brightly-coloured cloth lanterns with printed images of Chinese traditional masks as decoration in front of the hall’s entrance.

Families came to admire the meticulously-made creations while some brought their own multi-coloured lanterns to parade along the streets until late at night.

The competition was held as part of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration organised by the state government and PCTH.

The celebration, which attracted some 1,000 people, started with a welcoming dance by the Phor Tay School Association followed by a traditional dance, 24-season drum display and performances by local singers.

Lantern festivals were also held elsewhere in Penang, including one organised by the Taman Sunway Tunas Rukun Tetangga (RT) and its residents association at the housing estate near Bayan Baru recently.

Some 300 residents turned up for the event which included a lantern-making competition.

The VIPs present included Bayan Baru MP Datuk Zahrain Mohamed Hashim and Batu Maung assemblyman Abdul Malik Kassim who gave away the prizes for the lantern-making competition.

Association chairman Loh Yoon Soon, who is also the RT chairman, called upon the residents to always remain united and to ensure that their neighbourhood was a safe place to live in.

Over at the Penang Che Hoon Khor Moral Uplifting Society on Macalister Road, the festival was marked with a mass marriage registration by 68 couples on Sunday.

The couples posed for photographs with paper lanterns during the happy occasion.