The Chingay Night Parade is a must-see event in Johor Bahru. You do not need to watch the staged show which the dignatories get to see, you need to get next to and amoung the participants to feel the energy of this, what is in effect, serious religious celebration. The five deities of the Johor Old Chinese Temple are being paraded around Johor Bahru to bring blessings and prosperity to the city. Accompanying the deities are tens of thousands of Chinese Malaysians who walk this 10 km route, and the many performers who keep everyone entertained. For a more detailed account, please see my previous report made in 2018 of the whole five days of the Chingay festival.
Here is a short video to try and give you some indication of the sights and sounds of the Night Parade, followed by some photos. Having a camera in hand, I find that people are happy to be photographed/filmed/talk to me, I just have to get out of the way of the moving vehicles and fast-travelling deities!
This year is the Chinese Year of the Pig, so one would expect to see plenty of pig imagery on the floats. But, in this is a predominantly Muslim country, the organisers have clearly decided to be more subtle and it was hard to find many pigs!
One aspect of this event always impresses me and that is the age range of people taking part. The most energetic are the young men who bring the dragons alive. You may notice from the video that I rather like the dragons! At the other end of the age range you have these elegant ladies who also seem to enjoy what they are doing.
One float caught my eye because it seemed to be promoting farming! And, because the man with the ox really is a man! He sat soooo still that you could see people coming up close to check if he was real. The farmer dressed in brown was a manekin.
Now back to dragons…. this one put on a great show while the parade was stopped for some time. The guys have to be very coordinated to get this dragon spinning around. They even lie on the ground to get the dragon twisting around…… this is why it is best to get down to the street level for a close-up view. In the last photo, there was a bang as one of the support poles came loose… I love the expression on the chaps’ faces!
As this is a Chinese event, we need a bit more red……
Events like this are hungry and thirsty work, and there were plenty of vendors plying their wares. And this is where I found another sign of pigs! I was very tempted but couldn’t eat and use my camera!
After three hours I was ready to walk home, but I noticed that there were people on the bridge which should be a good vantage point to give you a better impression of the sheer numbers of people here. I could not stand on the main part of the bridge as mere mortals are not allowed to place themselves above the deities. So, a slightly side-on view will have to do.
So, if you live in Johor Bahru, do try and attend this event at least once! It is not put on for the tourists like the version in Singapore, and the authentic nature of Chingay Johor Bahru has to be experienced to be understood. For although we are in a Muslim country, Johor Bahru was built on the backs of the 19th century Chinese, and Chingay is in recognition of those founding times.
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