The Year of the Horse

I saw in the Year of the Horse at the Chung Tian Temple on Thursday night and this post mainly consists of photos that I snapped on the night.

 

I started the night with a walk from my car to the temple and found this eerily fascinating pole, which I wrote about in my last post -
A Dove Sign for Me ... or Mike?

It was a nice summer night for a pleasant walk up the driveway to the temple and gave me a chance to snap a photo of the front gate, something I couldn't do if driving into the carpark.

I thought I could hear bagpipes at the top of the hill and when I made it up to the courtyard, I found out that my ears were not deceiving me.

There were young Scottish dancers doing a sword dance accompanied by bagpipes.

Oddly enough, I found a Japanese sushi meal at a Chinese temple, which I thought was a bit weird.

 And the book I just finished (and will be doing a post on soon) has one of these fish shaped containers on its cover.

DBC Pierre - 

Lights out In Wonderland

It was a very synchy night for me personally and when I went into the temple to sit through the Light Offering service, I ran into an old workmate's wife who informed me that he was outside because he didn't want to sit through the hour-long service, which was spoken and sung mainly in Chinese.
So, I sat next to her and snapped photos of the service so Pete could look at them later.

Even the Brisbane Lord Mayor was there on the night (pictured above), as well as the head police officer of the Queensland Police Force, plus a few other politicians and big shots.

This is the light that hung above me.
I just had to take a shot of it's beauty.

Brisbane Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk

After all the chanting, prayers and speeches it was time for the

Lion Dance.

The Brisbane Mayor and the
Queensland Police Commissioner

This character above was funny and scary all at the same time ... no, not the head officer of the 
Queensland Police Force (May the Force be with you?-)
I'm talking about the guy in the mask.

Then it was time to go up and receive a red packet containing a nifty little decoration and a card with some wisdom for us all to ponder throughout the year.

I also bought this little guy who to me represents the moto "As above, so below".

I also purchased a large packet of the temple's incense sticks to burn at home, as well as a Ganesha incense holder (that's right, a Hindu incense holder from a Buddhist temple!?)   

I guess when people ask me what that smell is, I can just point them to the elephant in the room;-)

I finished the night off with a pleasant walk back to my iron horse and rode off into the Year of the Horse.