THE FEAST OF LANTERNS AT CANTON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5402, 20 July 1878, Page 3

THE FEAST OF LANTERNS AT CANTON.

(From the Japan Times.)

The feast was held ou tho three nights of the September foil moon—our harvest moon—and celebrates the birth of that luminary, sister to the Celestial Lord of tho five-clawed Dragon;* On the swell night—that of actual full moon—every Ohiue ohouseholderis obliged (doubtless on, pain of being chopped into mince-meat) to hang oat from the highest point of Jhia dwelling two lamps at least, and all day long the people may he seen occupied in fixing these lanterns ou the points of long slender bamboos, till the city from afar looks like an enormous cane-brake or a mighty bed of bulrushes. The lanterns, gaily painted, are of all form*, sizes, and colors; and as night falls, and the moon slowly ri-es, the lights begin to glimmer, and in half au hour tho low, mean, sordid city is changed into an almost indescribable scene of brilliant, twinkling, glittering light and beauty. I was most fortunate in the weather. A slight, very slight mist hung above the water, which, while it dimmed the lamps in the extreme background, yet magnified them and deepened their color. In the foreground were . tho boats, scarcely moving on the river, which lay as smooth as a mill-pond—for there was now scarcely a breath of wind—all gaily lighted, and some, the flower boats (floating theatres and bouses of entertainment or caf-ds)-brilliantly illuminated with rows of colored lamps and bright devices of every conceivable pattern. Dehind lay the great city, with its countless houses, closely packed, the lights on their roofs gently swaying to and fro on the vibrating canes, and showing like a fiery cloud hanging iu mid air : all ‘the ugly forms and dull grey masses vanished —shrouded in the luminous veil. And so away to the farthest limits of the walls, where the glitter changed to a dull red glow, like that of a dying fire. Then, from every flower-boat on the stream, rose incessant rockets, and each fiery meteor, as it rushed up into the deep, deep blue of the Oriental sky, seemed to drive down into the river a corresponding flash ; each,, as it hurst into a rain of sparks above, reflected below, keeping the water always glittering with many-colored specks of flame. And from every boat, from every house, burst innumerable crackers, sounding like* an incessant fusillade, and making the air heavy with tho perfume from the shavings of scented wood with which they are tilled. Then the tinkle of the Chinese gittern, and the s morons clang and clash of gong and cymbal, softened by the distance, filled the air with a nob unpleasant music of holiday joy. And best of all, to my mind, far above and iu all contrast to the glitter and the glare—the smoke and mist and fiery glow—the rattle and the laughter, andthe song;—there rode the full, round moon—pale, pure, bright, as she only is' in the glorious lustrous purple hills lying quiet and calm and beautiful, sleeping iu her light. Puck and Oberon, Messieurs Cob weed, Mustardseed and Peaseblossom, might be revelling and rioting here, but there, one might well believe that Titania slept her happy sleep amongst immortal thyme and oxlips, and where the never dying, nodding, violets blow. * Indeed, it was a scene I shall not readily forget.