Nanjing’s Confucius Temple is renown nationwide for its new year’s lanterns. But that definition extends to the western new year, bringing joy yesterday evening to revellers as they said goodbye to 2022 and wondered what the next 12 months will bring.
Whereas the lanterns on display at Chinese New Year at Confucius Temple, a.k.a. Fuzimiao, are those of the traditional Chinese variety, it being Lantern festival after all, for western new year, it’s a case of anything goes. Or almost anything. For the Year of the Rabbit is incoming. And that puts bunnies front and foremost in this New Year’s pageant.
According to the Yangtze Evening News, the inescapable colourful lanterns adorning the Confucius Temple area in Nanjing are this year focused on the Temple itself, the Dacheng Hall, the Imperial Examination Museum, the Qinhuai River Cruise route and other scenic spots.
Visitors arriving are likely to first note the big red lanterns hung on both sides of Gongyuan Xi Jie just as two giant dragons. Much, much more, lies in store, a total of 170 lantern sets in fact, displayed throughout Confucius Temple that is one of Nanjing’s two National 5A level tourist attractions.
According to the general manager of Qinhuai Lantern Company of Nanjing Confucius Temple Culture and Tourism Group, this year’s lanterns take lotus flowers and auspicious clouds as the core of the exhibition, embellished with koi, pine, cypress and Confucian scholars. These not only convey the meaning of good luck, but also conform to the cultural firmament of the Dacheng Hall that is the very core of Fuzimiao.
Come Spring Festival itself, the area will hold a series of imperial examination culture and Confucian-themed performances. These shall dovetail nicely with the Qinhuai Lantern Cultural and Creative Arts Festival that gets under way on 14 January.
That’s the time to head to Confucius Temple this year, to check out the creative lighting and intangible cultural heritage products on offer. Even the mascot of last year’s Winter Olympics will grace us with its presence, together with a “Bing Dwen Dwen” series of products.
Qinhuai lanterns are perhaps the foremost annual tradition in Nanjing, while this year is the 40th in the Chinese calendar’s sexagenary cycle (癸卯; guimao). That’s all the reason needed to turn the Qinhuai River and the Ming City Wall into a world of lights and a sea of joy.
