JOHOR BARU: The city centre was a flurry of activities as devotees and spectators gathered from as early as 8am Monday (Feb 17) to watch the rituals and festivities that are part of the annual Johor Baru Chingay Festival.
The festival, into its third day on Monday (Feb 17), saw the five deities on palanquins - representing the Hainan, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew dialects, respectively - being brought out of the Johor Ancient Temple in Jalan Trus here by large groups of devotees.
Aside from lion and dragon dances, there were also shouts of “heng ah!” (fortune) and “huat ah!” (prosperity) to add to the lively atmosphere.
At 11am, the entourage set out on foot to the Xing Gong temple in Jalan Ulu Ayer Molek, some 3km away, where the deities would be placed there for the night in preparation of the Chingay parade on Tuesday (Feb 18) evening.
Xing Gong temple is the starting point of the parade, also known as the climax of the festival, where tens of thousands of devotees and performers on foot and floats move along an 8km route in the city.
Johor Baru Tiong-Hua Association president Ho Sow Tong said the parade, which is more than 150 years old, is an annual “tour” for the deities to bless the city and its people for the year.
He added that the Chingay Festival is celebrated by the Chinese community in Johor Baru from the 19th to 22nd day of Chinese New Year.
This year, the festival falls from Feb 15 till Feb 19.
It kicked off with a lighting ceremony last Saturday (Feb 15) followed by a “street cleaning” ritual to cleanse the parade route of “bad spirits” and make way for the deities.
The parade starts at Xing Gong temple at 7pm and ends well past midnight back at the same place.
Several main roads would also be closed in stages to make way for the occasion.
On the final day of the festival, the deities are brought on foot back to Johor Ancient Temple where they will stay for the rest of the year.
