Actually, i've only just realised wat Chingay is REALLY all abt when i watched the entire parade frm beginning to end ytd near the post office........n IT WAS GREAT!!! Basically our Chingay Parade is just a parade to bless the whole of JB by inviting the 5 gods of diff clans to come out.......and they are of course accompanied by other diff gods (of lower ranks i tink...?) and also many performances......... The 5 clans would be Hainan, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokien and Teochew......The performers would be divided according to the clans they represent and each clan will walk in their own group.....Performers will open the way with their performance and then the ppl carrying the god's statue in a mini seden will be behind them.......they will stop at diff parts of the journey to perform n for the ppl carrying the god in his seden, they will start to shake the seden sideways (left to right) in a very violent manner while all others (including me) will shout "Huat ar!!!!!!!" That's always the climax lar and many ppl would vie to touch or help carry the seden cos that's a veri impt n sacred job i tink.....! Loads of impressive performance, mostly traditional ones like Lion Dance (many diff versions), Dragon Dance, Big Dolls (those wearing a headware like a doll), Big Flags (those ultra big flags with THICK poles), ppl on stilts, traditional dance with chinese fans and many more.....but there were also some modern performance like Line Dance too.......!
The Hokien entourage was the longest...i tink there were 10 or 11 groups of performances be4 i finally saw the seden arriving......so once again i shouted "HUAT AR!!!!!!!!" (it has now become my favourite motto........HUAT AR!!!!!!!) But then when the last god arrived (the teochew one) there was this round cylinder flag behind it and the seden was not allowed to be shaken like the first 4........cos Kee said that the god was either the most impt one or it was becos the temple frm where the procession began was a teochew temple so the god must be given even more respect!
I stood there n watched the whole procession frm ard 8.30 pm to 12.30 am so my legs were REALLY numb by the time we finished watching! Some pics below:
~ Lion dance..........
~ Arrival of the first God from the Hainan clan.....i tink the God's called Zhao Da Yuan Shuai
~ Another announcement of the arrival of the Hainan God.....
~ Crowd gathering be4 the parade started.....
~ More crowds............
~ Dragon Dance....the climax is always when they start spinning the dragon in circles...pretty!
~ The big container thingy for the joss sticks.....there's the name of the God on it though i can't remember which clan it belongs to....either Cantonese or Hakka......
~ More dragon dance.........
~ Hua Che......i dunno wat u call them in English hahaha.........
~ More lion dance again.........
~ One of the 5 God's sedens......i tink this one belongs to the Cantonese clan...the 2nd one to appear that night........
~ One of the few varieties of Lion Dances.......
~ Same one as above.........
~ Big Dolls.....they're cute AND talented...i saw 2 doing breakdance on the road....with full costume on!!!!!
~ This should be the third God to appear in the seden....i tink it belongs to the Hakka clan...
~ This one is the last one to appear...the most impt one cos u're not supposed to shake the seden.....it belongs to the Teochew Clan........
~ 4th God to appear.......it belongs to the Hokien clan which i'm from....dats why i prayed especially hard hahaha.....!
~ The longest dragon of the nite.....i tink it's equivalent to like 9 or 10 normal dragons.....u shud see it when they start spinning the dragon....magnificent!!! :)
~ Traditional chinese fan dance....?
~ Another traditional item - Big Flags (i dunno wat u call it in english lar...we just call it Da Qi in chinese......)
~ The onli sweet i got frm the entire nite hahaha......cos they always give out ang paos n candys during chingay but normally onli kids ask for them (and they usually give out to kids aneway...) but a small girl gave me this w/o me asking so i just took it......it's a BLESSING!!!!!! :)
It's been 2 years since i last saw Chingay in JB and this time i watched it ALL! Definitely an experience to be remembered! Man i'm so proud be part of such tradition and cultural heritage lar!!! Normally the Johor Royal family will also come down and watch but of course they get to sit comfortably near City Square there lor.........
I wanna particiapate in it next year!!! Must ask Kee n the rest to bring me in hahaha! :)
Oh ya i took short clips of a few nice scenes during Chingay n to save space in my phone i uploaded them into youtube....there's one showing the scene where they shook the God's seden and everyone shouting "HUAT AR!!!!!" ! :) Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LtGGlMHff8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPC1PaiuqhE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPXSLaYgJMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b28lw75klU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91TSct4l1kI
Zhang Hui Mei ~ Ji De