Buddha's Birthday

I feel so ignorant not to know that we were celebrating Buddha's birthday yesterday, which is the most important celebration for Mahayana Buddhists in many countries. The date appears to be flexible due to Chinese and Gregorian calendars and respect of the lunar cycle. I think Ranau's celebrations were flexible due to the weekend and to cater for our visitors from Taiwan and Korea! On Friday night the Chinese Temple offered a huge free meal to everyone which I didn't feel comfortable going to but on Saturday evening Emily and I went to see the wonderful parades through the streets which reminded me of the Fete de Livarot in many ways but I have to say this was more dramatic and colourful.

 I have been trying to find out about the various themes we saw last night but not with much success. If anyone can "enlighten" me ( couldn't resist!) I would be grateful. There seemed to be three men walking with each float and they were either wearing a snake around their necks are whipping the ground or brandishing a knife and looking very fierce. A sort of carriage with a little Buddha inside known as a hanamatsuri (thank goodness for Wikipedia) was carried by several men and  rocked quite violently . The only reason we were told  was to make people laugh, however I suspect there is some other more meaningful reason. The lanterns, flags, lion dances, gongs and aroma of incense made it  a memorable evening and again one shared by everyone regardless of religion.