Lantern Festival by Day

Entering the City God Temple Area

We’re rapidly approaching the end of our blog tour of Beijing and Shanghai.  As you’ll recall our last day was quite busy — the Jade Buddha Temple, tea time, the Shanghai Museum, and a dim sum lunch have already been shown.

Lantern Festival by Day

This week we’re going to take a look at the Lantern Festival from two perspectives — by day and once again by night.  And on Fun Photo Friday I’ll present some of my favorite photographs of the Lantern Festival taken during both time.

City God Temple Area

The Lantern Festival is the culmination of the annual Chinese New Year celebration that begins on the last day of the Chinese year and extends to the fifteenth day of the New Year — a time known as the Spring Festival.  By fortuitous happenstance the 2014 Chinese New Year began on January 31.  That means the Lantern Festival happily coincided with our last full day in Shanghai, thus allowing us to take part in this exciting event.

City God Temple Area

In Shanghai the place to attend the Lantern Festival is next to the Yu Garden in the old town commercial section known as the City God Temple area for adjacent City God Temple.  This bustling center of street commerce teems with stores and food vendors, but during the festival it is absolutely packed with throngs of attendees.  It only gets worse once the sun goes down and the lanterns illuminated, as you’ll see this Wednesday.

Here are samples of what you’ll see during the day:

Lantern Festival by Day

Lantern Festival by Day

Lantern Festival by Day

City God Temple Area

Lantern Festival by Day