{"id":12747,"date":"2021-03-10T12:09:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T04:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jb2sg.com\/article\/?p=12747"},"modified":"2023-09-04T14:29:23","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T06:29:23","slug":"chingay-parade-part-of-chinese-new-year-festivities-in-johor-bahru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jb2sg.com\/article\/2021\/03\/10\/chingay-parade-part-of-chinese-new-year-festivities-in-johor-bahru\/","title":{"rendered":"Chingay Parade – part of Chinese New Year festivities in Johor Bahru"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most important festival in Johor Bahru is Chingay parade. The annual Chingay street parade has been an annual tradition to march around Johor Bharu since the 1800’s. This spectacular event also known as the ‘Parade of the Deities’ is now a major cultural and tourist attraction with over 300,000 visitors. The Chingay parade can take up to few hours as spectators are treated to the most vibrant display of lion dancers, dragon dancers, many different bands and much, much more. This is a beautiful festival and parade to experience at a wonderful time of the year to be in Malaysia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chingay parade in Johor are held annually by the Johor Bahru Old Chinese Temple on the 21st day of the first month of the Lunar New Year since the 1870. It is joined by the five main clans in the state, which are Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, Hoklo and Teochew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What happens when Chingay in Johor Bahru?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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LIGHTING CEREMONY<\/strong> – To mark the beginning of the Chingay parade ritual called the Lighting ceremony. Generally Johor Old Temple would be the main centre of the celebrations but it is simply not big enough to accommodate all the devotees and worshippers and therefore a temporary shrine, called Xin Gong at Jalan Ulu Ayer Molek. The opening of Chingay parade by key officials is accompanied by traditional performances, loud and banging firecrackers and fireworks sounding like a combination of machine-gun noises and rocket launchers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CLEANSING CEREMONY<\/strong> – On the second day of Chingay parade, the main streets of Johor Bahru are cleansed by a symbolic washing ceremony to prepare the route for deities, who will undertake their annual journey around the city. Devotees dressed in red, will march along the 10km route and using pomelo or lemon tree leaves, sprinkle the streets with water soaked in the mixture of raw rice, salt and tea leaves. The procession is accompanied by loud beating of gongs, cymbals and drums. Call it mystics or not, it has been observed for years that the street cleansing ceremony triggers rainfall, which will properly wash the streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MOUNTING OF DEITIES ON SEDANS<\/strong> – After cleansing, it\u2019s time to prepare the temple deities for their annual journey around Johor Bahru via sedan chairs(heavy structure they carry the gods in). Home to the five deities, each associated with the five main Chinese clans, namely, Zhao Da Yuan Shuai (Hainan), Hua Guang Da Di (Kwong Siew), Gan Tian Da Di (Hakka), Hong Xian Da Di (Hokkien), and Yuan Tian Shang Di (Teochew).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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