[EVENT] New Year, New Wishes with 313@Somerset

Friday, January 29, 2016

[EVENT] New Year, New Wishes with 313@Somerset

In Singapore, we are not allowed to release sky lanterns into the sky, which is actually one of the more popular things to do when you are in certain part of Taiwan. Traditionally, sky lanterns are lighted up with wishes handwritten on it and released into the sky with the hope that what you wished for will come true.

This Chinese New Year, at 313@Somerset, shoppers are invited to release their own sky lanterns, digitally though. I went to release mine while checking out the rest of the activities there at the atrium. As you can see, the whole mall is already beautifully decorated with the sky lanterns.

I took a selfie with the one marked as "safety" which is currently most appropriate for me as I would be flying off to Shanghai in another 11 hours time and I wished for a safe flight and trip.

Jessie and I creating our lantern. Photo Credit - Jessie

There's a total of 4 iPad stations with the CNY iWish app that allows shoppers to pen wishes onto the colourful sky lanterns and release them to the sky, digitally on a 8m x 3m LED screen inside the mall and would be available till 6 February 2016. This interactive display is an initiative with Codigo, an award winning development company for digital application, that gained success through initiative such as iDragon.

There is a total of 8 different designs to choose from and I choose the pineapple one to match my wishes at the next screen.

After selecting the background design, next we will choose the well wishes we want to add in. The well wishes represent romance, career, prosperity, etc.

And my digital sky lantern is ready to be released and shared! As I've signed in via Facebook, my facebook profile photo was shown on top of the virtual lantern like this and I got to share the sky lantern with greetings with my friends on Facebook.

There is no limit in the number of lanterns one can create and release and it is free for all so I created three. Yellow one for prosperity, pink one for romance and a blue one for career!

Behind the virtual wall, there is also a physical Wall of Wishes for those who prefer to have something more permanent. Simply grab a lantern-shaped paper cut-outs and write or draw your wishes on them and hang them on the wall. Your friends can come and find your cards, share on social media and win vouchers. I drew a simple monkey face for the monkey year.