Cape Town holds first Chinese Spring Festival temple fair

Cape Town hosted Sunday its first ever Spring Festival temple fair.

The event celebrated the Chinese Lantern Festival which takes place on the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar. Nearly 3,000 local residents visited the fair, enjoying lantern shows and eating traditional yuanxiao - glutinous rice balls.

"I like the food and also the performance was really nice. And it was also interesting to see how the dragon was moving," two friends said.

"I think it's very interesting, it's exposing me to a culture I'm not familiar with," Karsten, a local resident doubled down.

Lion and dragon dances and martial art performances, further immersed the public into the traditional Chinese rituals and customs.

"We all come with our different traditions, they're all interesting, they all give a structure to all of us in our daily lives, I think it's important for us to understand each other's traditions," another resident said Sean Simpson said.

The Lantern festival marks the conclusion of the Spring Festival or Chine New Year holiday celebration.

South Africa is considered to have the biggest population of Chinese residents in Africa, with a large community in Johannesburg.