Chingay is a festival held on the 20-22nd day of the first month of the Lunar New Year; hence it is a Chinese celebration. So, on 28th February 2016 we headed towards the festival route in the evening. Fortunately, we could walk to the parade site or we would have found ourselves triple parked and unable to leave by car until everyone else had gone.
The distinct Chinese organisations in JB were out in force in this parade; I have never seen so many people in one place in this city before. There were lion dancers, dragons, shrines, banners, 20-foot tall flags, drums, gongs, and huge plastic monkeys (this being the Year of the Monkey).
The site and sounds of JB Chingay were spectacular, and sadly my camera lens wasn’t fast enough to capture the images in sharp detail. Still, I hope this following photos give you an impression of the parade. I was stood on a bridge above the parade route, and the controlled rush of the participants as they ran under the bridge (quickly enough to avoid bad luck!) added an extra frisson to this event. For your information, do not stand immediately on the bridge or you will be shouted at all night to move out of the way; again it’s a ‘luck’ thing.
If you were unable to attend the JB Chingay this year, then please mark the date in your diary for next year as this is something not to be missed if you are in Johor Bahru at the time.
Click here to return to Travels in Malaysia 2016.
Click here to return to Helen Gray’s homepage.