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PHOTOS: Chinatown lights up to welcome Year of the Rat

SINGAPORE – The quick-witted and resourceful Rat leads the pack at Chinatown’s Chinese New Year Celebrations this year. Based on the theme Ushering in a Great Year, Chinatown will be all aglow with beautiful lanterns from 4 January to 22 February 2020.

The street light-up features 200 rat lanterns dressed up in traditional Chinese costumes at Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road and the Garden Bridge. Segmented into three sections of Success, Celebration and Family, the centre divider between Eu Tong Sen Street and New Bridge Road is decorated with brightly-lit and elaborate handcrafted lanterns inspired by the Chinese Zodiac. Both roads are also adorned with overhanging gold coin lanterns and festive greetings which stretch all the way to South Bridge Road.

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A towering centrepiece – a 12m-tall, 8m-wide and 8m-long lantern installation – features a Golden Rat and seven other rats atop a bed of gold coins, pink peonies and a giant ingot to symbolise good luck and prosperity.

For more Instagram moments, head to the Garden Bridge where visitors will be greeted by rat lanterns inspired by the Five Elements which are a part of Chinese philosophy – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

The design of this year’s Street Light-Up is a collaboration between Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens’ Consultative Committee, students of Singapore University of Technology and Design, the Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2020 Organising Committee, and master craftsmen from the Chinese city of Zigong in Sichuan province.