2012 Johore Temple Festival: The Procession

Having attended the previous 2 editions, we knew that the procession would come to City Square at around 10 pm.  So we arrived in JB at 9:30 pm, had coffee and waited.  The Malaysia Prime Minister was the Guest of Honour this year, and we could vaguely hear him from afar.  There were special performances at the main stage, the 24-season drums, the lion dances etc, but we could not really see it clearly. Imagine you are looking at this photo.






....and this. 

These special performances were in part to celebrate Johore Temple Festival being accorded the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Malaysia.











Because of this happy occassion, the whole area was jam packed!  The crowd was also joining the procession freely when it started.













The procession started about an hour late than last year, and the dragon was featured prominently in the procession (being Year of the Dragon).

As there were so many people in the procession, there was not sufficient space for certain acts to perform.  For example, the giant flag contigent did not have the opportunity to wave the flag, unlike in previous years.  It was close to midnight when the first deity arrived.

The crowd will let out cries of "Fa-ah" (prosper) when the sedan carrying the deity passed them by.  Those carrying the sedan would shake the sedan, thus making it difficult to take a good photo.

We decided to leave the parade after this, as we felt that the procession was just too crowded and it was unlikely that there would be any special display of stunts or skills by the contigent.  Just then, the fireworks came on.

Will I return next year for the Johore Temple Festival?  Very likely, probably to experience the proceedings of the other days.  Maybe the organiser could look into controlling the scale of the procession to allow for a better enjoyment for the audience.

More write-up on the Johore Temple Festival could be found at Johore Festival 2012