A Luminosity of Lanterns.

A Luminosity of Lanterns.

I love looking up collective nouns. Some of them are brilliant, such as: a congregation of alligators, a shrewdness of apes, a sloth of bears, an obstinacy of buffalo, a glaring of cats, a bloat of hippos. I could go on....... I looked up the collective noun for lanterns and there isn't one, so I decided to make one up and came up with 'A Luminosity of Lanterns.' Anyway, it is coming up for Mid-autumn Festival and there's certainly a 'Luminosity of Lanterns' everywhere in Hong Kong at the moment. I hope to go and see quite a few.

Mid-autumn Festival is one of the most beautiful festivals here. It is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, meaning it can take place in September or October. This year it will be on the twenty-ninth of September.

This festival is based on an old Chinese legend. Long ago there were ten suns in the sky, making everyone too hot, shriveling up the people's crops and drying out their wells. A brave archer named Hou Yi, who could no longer endure the people's suffering, shot nine of the suns out of the sky with his arrows. He was rewarded for doing this by being given some elixir of everlasting life, but there was only enough for one person. Hou Yi wouldn't drink it, as he could not stand the idea of his beautiful wife, Chang'e dying and him being left all alone. However, his evil apprentice, Feng Meng, learnt of the elixir and broke into Hou Yi's home when he knew he was out. He threatened Chang'e and tried to make her hand over the potion. The only thing Chang'e could do to stop Feng Meng from drinking the mixture was to drink it herself. After gulping it down, she immediately felt herself grow lighter and lighter and she began to float upwards out of the window, into the sky and all the way up to the moon. She lives there to this day with her pet white rabbit. When Hou Yi discovered his wife had gone, he was devastated and he took to spending long periods of his time gazing up at the moon, hoping he might catch a glimpse of her.

Every Mid-autumn Festival families come together to eat moon cakes and brightly coloured round fruit. They carry lanterns and venture outside to gaze up at the full moon, wondering if they too might see the mysterious lady who lives there.

Brightly coloured fruit is popular at Mid-Autumn Festival time.

Brightly coloured fruit is popular at Mid-Autumn Festival time.

I don't actually celebrate Mid-autumn Festival, but I do like to look upon the moon when it is at its fullest and brightest. I also love all the lantern decorations. Apparently for thousands of years Chinese communities would get together at Mid-autumn and write their wishes on sky lanterns which they would then release in the hope that they would float up to Chang'e, goddess of the moon and that she would shower them with blessings.

I recently discovered that there is a Lantern Street in Yuen Long and that it is one of the few places in Hong Kong where you can still buy hand crafted lanterns. To get there I took the MTR to Long Ping Station, exited through exit D, walked down Po Fai Path, next to the nullah of the Shan Pui River, then turned left and walked across the nullah on Yuen Long On Ning Road. I crossed the road at the lights, just past the bridge, then headed left before taking the first road down on my right to Kiu Lok Square. Lantern Street is part of Tai Kiu Market.

Looking at the nullah from Long Ping MTR.

Entrance to Tai Kiu Market.

Yuen Long was traditionally a market town. Tai Kiu Market was part of Tai Kiu Village and sold lots of the agricultural produce the villagers harvested. Nowadays the market is much smaller than before and the village has dwindled to just a few remaining houses, surrounded by much newer high rise estates. The occupants of the village houses are mainly elderly.

Gateway to Tai Kiu Village.

Tai Kiu Village.

Sculpture outside modern housing estate.

Tai Kiu Market is a bustling wet market selling fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, dried goods and much more. Some of the meat sections were really gruesome. I didn't photograph these. Live chickens were also on sale here. This was once a common sight, but was banned due to bird flu. I hadn't realized it was allowed again. I took quite a few pictures of the market itself.

Tai Kiu Market.

Dried goods stall.

Vegetables.

Seafood.

Dried meats.

Market stalls.

Market stalls.

Lantern Street is located down a narrow lane behind a stall that specializes in fruit baskets. If you can't locate that, you can also find Lantern Street by walking round the perimeter of the market. You will hit upon it eventually.

Lantern Street is down the lane next to this stall.

Lantern Street is down the lane next to this stall.

It's a very popular place and at this time of year you can certainly expect it to be very busy.

Lantern Street.

Lantern Street.

Lantern Street.

The stalls on this street are all owned or rented by the same family. It's hard to find information about them. During the year I think this family make paper offerings and around Mid-autumn they make lanterns. They have been selling lanterns here since 1984. The lanterns here were originally made by the husband of the lady who runs the stalls, but now her son comes up with most of the designs.

I think the stall owner is the seated lady.

The lanterns have many different shapes such as: rabbits, fish, dinosaurs and fruit. Some are made of cellophane, others are made of paper. In the past people would place a candle inside their lantern. Now they are more likely to use an LED light for safety. Each lantern is handmade and they are time consuming to construct, but their prices are very reasonable. Many people also come here to take photographs at the stall because the lanterns are so colourful and beautiful.

Panda lanterns.

Panda lanterns.

Rabbit lanterns are very traditional because the moon goddess has a pet rabbit.

Elephant lanterns are very cute.

Elephant lanterns are very cute.

Dinosaurs or possibly dragons.

Dinosaurs or possibly dragons.

Dinosaurs or possibly dragons.

Pineapple lanterns.

However, I think my overall favourite are the fish ones? Which do you like?

Fish lanterns are my favourite.

So many colours.

Like wandering through an ocean.

Or at the very least an aquarium.

Children are as excited shopping for lanterns here at Mid-Autumn as children are back home at Christmas time.

Dad and child choose a lantern.

Parents get pretty excited, too.

When I had finished looking around here, I went to visit a temple, but I am going to write about that on a separate blog and keep this about lanterns.

In the evening when I was back home, a friend got in touch to say the Mid-Autumn Festival displays had just gone up in Discovery Bay. Naturally I had to go and have a look. These are located on the lawn outside 7-eleven. The display is made up of lots of rabbits of different sizes and colours.

Rabbits take over the lawn.

Rabbits, rabbits everywhere.

Rabbits, rabbits and more rabbits.

Must have been breeding like ....

Rabbits.