At 11 am, the deities are placed in their shrine carriages following a 100-year old ritual which will last for three days. They are brought out of the Johor Old Chinese Temple to start their travels up to their temporary home at Xing Gong. The dieties emerge in strict order: Zhao Da Yuan Shuai (Hainanese), Hua Guang Da Di (Cantonese), Gan Tian Da Di (Hakka), Hong Xian Da Di (Hokkien), and Yuan Tian Shang Di (Teochew) who is shown above.
If you get to Jalan Trus at about 10:30 am, you can see the dragons floating along at the start of the parade. They stopped off at several buildings along the way to present themselves to the occupants.
Back at the temple devotees were congregating, waiting expectently. Many were holding very large incense candles, and many more were holding umbrellas. Sadly, the rain started to come down just when the deities were leaving the temple. Holding up an umbrella to protect my camera was quite a challenge, so I concentrated my effort on getting some video footage of the five deities. After standing out of the rain for a while, I ventured back onto Jalan Trus but the main part of the parade was now too far away to catch up with.
There is a small pedestrian bridge where Jalan Trus joins Jalan Tun Abdul Razak, so I went up there for a better view of the parade. This time I knew the etiquette, but was reminded by another cameraman and this guy on the left (photo below) made it quite clear; one cannot stand above a deity, so the centre of the bridge was off limits. The parade tends to stop and start quite a bit, so the dragons and lions dance to entertain everyone (viewers and deities alike!). It appears that the deities and their incense cauldrons (sorry, I do not know the correct name for these items) do not like going under bridges. So, once their route is clear, they make a mad dash to get under the bridge and safely out the other side. The sedan carrying Hong Xian Da Di (Hokkien) was frequently swung violently to and fro; apparently this is to wake up the deities and/or give them some fun!
Here is a view of the tail end of the parade on its way to the Xing Gong, with the sedan carrying Yuan Tian Shang Di at the back.
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