From the morning of February 11th (the second day of the Lunar New Year), thousands of people in South Africa flocked to the Nam Hoa Temple, located 50 km from the capital Pretoria, to attend the annual cultural festival celebrating the Year of the Dragon 2024.
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| Nam Hoa Temple, located in Gauteng province, 50km from South Africa's administrative capital Pretoria, is the largest Buddhist temple and monastery in Africa. (Source: VNA) |
This is the largest Buddhist temple and monastery in Africa, and also one of the few places in South Africa that holds a festival to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Here, visitors can enjoy many performances and presentations rich in Asian culture such as dragon dance, lion dance, listen to the deafening sound of firecrackers celebrating the New Year, experience offering incense and candles to Buddha, or write wishes for the new year and throw them onto a lucky bridge…
To welcome the new year, the temple was beautifully decorated with traditional symbols. The festival program was vibrant, colorful, and attracted a large number of people from different cultures.
For many people in South Africa, attending the Lunar New Year celebration at Nam Hoa Temple is a fascinating and culturally enriching experience.
At the festival, Mehdi, a South African, said this was the first time he, his wife, and two sons had attended a Lunar New Year celebration and was surprised to see so many people in South Africa celebrating the holiday.
He said: “We were very impressed with the culture and the food. This was a wonderful festival, especially for my children who were born here and don't know much about Asian culture, so they started asking a lot of questions. They were very curious, and this motivated us to participate more in events like this in the future. On the occasion of the Lunar New Year, I wish everyone in the world peace and happiness.”
(according to VNA)
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