Lunar Fest

Baaaaa. Have you ever wondered about the different Chinese animals? If you have, you probably know that 2015 is the year of the sheep or the ram or whatever you want to call it. I got the chance to go to Harbourfront’s cool Lunar Fest event. I always thought that Chinese New Year falls on the second full moon of the year, but apparently it’s much more complicated. Basically what you need to know is that it’s somewhere between January 21st and February 20th, and Google can probably tell you the exact date..

I got to the Harbourfront and noticed that just in front of the entrance, was a huge installation of sheep. We didn’t really know what it was all about or who made it. The volunteers didn’t know a thing about it, which was pretty weird.

“Some of the challenges were being able to figure out who is doing what. The other thing is the weather, which is obviously something that we cannot control,” said Charlie Wu, the artistic associate for the festival.

Before my interview with Wu, we got to go explore the cool stuff the festival had. The first thing we visited was the dumpling market. We got a coupon to have free dumpling samples. We all tried dumplings with different fillings. Then we went to the Brigantine room, and it was dark in there. There was a maze of sheep and there was a shelf in the shape of giant sheep where some people’s artwork was on display. I got to go through the maze (Where I was video-bombed by my brother). I also got to make a lantern with colorful transparent sheets and cardboard.

“Harbourfront is a place where a lot of cultures gather, and a lot of people have come here to learn and share different cultures for many years. It’s such an important tradition so we thought it’s a perfect place to bring the tradition here to share,“ said Wu. We conducted our interview in a room full of painted sheep artwork. (See more of the interview on our YouTube Channel)

Do you think our trip was finished after the interview? Well, let me tell you… NO!!! In fact, it was far from over. Once we finished the interview, I got to see “the meeting of the drums” which was a show, well sort of like a concert. The show was performed by the Japanese Ten Ten trio led by Aki Takahashi together with Kiyoshi Nagata and Heidi Chan. This performance was special for us because we have met Kiyoshi Nagata and interviewed him before when he was performing at Harbourfront with his taiko drum band called Nagata Sachu.

Well, that’s the end so thank you for reading this article on Diary of a wimpy Kid (just kidding). Have a great Sheep year!