News / Nunn Road / 2004 / No. E33 4th Jul. 2004

Dear parents,

Lantern Festival is around the corner.  The children are busy making lanterns and preparing for the festival.  Lantern Festival is one of the big festivals we celebrate with parents at Nania. The Nania Lantern Festival brings together elements from the Chinese Moon Cake Festival and the Japanese Summer Bon Festival.  The festival is celebrated in the evening.

On the festival day, children will make dango (rice dumpling) in the morning for the evening festival snack.  They will enjoy the evening with songs, dance and the snack they made themselves. They will do a lantern walk with their handmade lanterns.

At Nania we use candles for story time, birthdays and farewells.  Candles as light on the earth are used to relate the children to the lights in the Heavens in our cultural life activity.  As the sight of Mr Sun, Mr Moon and Mr Star fill the children with wonder and inspire us in our life, Mr Candle and it’s light brings a sense of dignity to the children as it grace their activity.  The lantern walk during the festival offers a moment of communion in the children’s hearts between the light on earth and the lights in the heavens.

Teacher Thian

Nania Lantern Festival

Programme

Mothers are kindly requested to help bring refreshments for their children after the Bon dance

Notes regarding the Lantern Festival

Please note that school will begin at 9am and finish at 12.15pm on 16th July 04 (Friday). Children will have lunch in the school. Children will come back again at 6.30 pm (after dinner) with their parents. Please be on time.
We have made parking arrangements for the festival with the Che Hoon Moral Uplifting Society, across the road from Nania.  Please park your car at the car park opposite the school.
There will be quite many people during the Lantern Festival.  Please look after the safety of your child.
Some Japanese children will wear their traditional costume for the evening. English class children are most welcome to wear their traditional clothes as well.

*Bon is one of Japan’s summer festivals and is a time when people make offerings of food and other things to their ancestors and pray for the happiness of their ancestor’s souls in the next world.  It takes place from the 13th to 15th of August, and during this time the folk dance known as Bon Odori can be seen in cities, towns and villages all over Japan.

*Moon Cake Festival: A Mid-Autumn Festival, the third major festival of the Chinese calendar, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month. This festival is also known as the Moon Cake Festival because a special kind of sweet cake prepared in the shape of the moon and filled with sesame seeds, ground lotus seeds and duck eggs is served as a delicacy.

Lantern Walk Song

I go with my bright little lantern
My lantern is going with me
In heaven the stars are shining
On Earth shines my lantern for me
The Light grows dim as we go in
la bimba la bamba la bin
The Light grows dim as we go in
la bimba la bamba la bin