1st Borneo Lantern Festival

If you haven't read about the 7000 lanterns on Sibu street I wrote in the previous post, you can take a look at it before proceed to this write up for better understanding.

I was at the "lanterns light-on" ceremony scene last night. I just knew that the organizer had gave it a name, it is called "Borneo Lantern Festival" and this is the first ever Borneo Lantern Festival in Sibu! Heard it will be noted in Sibu's calendar as an annual event and its scale will be expand from year to year.

The ceremony was held at Sibu Tua Pek Kong Temple where the "dragon head" was located. The place was too crowded and I was unable to get any closer. Doesn't matter, as usual the ceremony started with speeches from VIPs which I not really interested anyway.

It was about 7.45pm when VIPs pressed the button to switch on more than 7000 lanterns' light. A second after that, fireworks were seen to mark the official opening of the 1st Borneo Lantern Festival.



The dragon head came to life with the power of electricity! It was made of twisted metal and also lighting tubes.


Visitors were impressed by the artwork and taking turn to pose in front of it to capture this historical moment. Few foreigners being seen attending this event and they were busy taking photos. I guess they did enjoy the night!

As the roads along the hanging lanterns were temporarily closed, the crowd then being asked to walk following the lanterns' route from the dragon head to its tail located at Sibu Gateway to witness the beauty of the "red dragon".

[Lanterns from Tua Pek Kong Temple]

[Lanterns on Channel Road]

[Lanterns on Chambers Road]

[Another viewing angle of the lanterns at Chambers Road]

Sibu Gateway is where the "dragon tail" is located and it marks the ending point of the lantern festival. Here you can see hundreds or maybe approaching a thousand of colorful lanterns. The lighting on lanterns covering the square made the place look really gorgeous.

Lots of parents brought their children here to see the beautiful scenery. The kids are among the happiest group seeing thousand of lights and colorful "tanglung" just above their heads!

At a separate corner of Sibu Gateway few feet away from the sea of colorful lanterns, a red giant lantern was set up with a white-light swan statue stand on top of it. I guess it brings the meaning of "Swan City" （which refers to Sibu） is having a lantern festival!

It was a great experience and it gives Sibu people a nice place to go during leisure and hopefully it can really boost up Sibu's tourism.