Mooncake & Lantern

Mooncakes (simplified Chinese: 月饼; pinyin: yuè bĭng) are Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, 中秋節, Tiong Qiu Jiet

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節, zhōng qiū jié), also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty.[dubious – discuss] In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. The Chinese Lantern Festival is held on the 15 day of the first lunar month.

 

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:

 

1. Eating moon cakes outside under the moon

2. Putting pomelo rinds on one's head

3. Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns

4. Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e

5. Planting Mid-Autumn trees

6. Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members

7. Fire Dragon Dances

Dummies article for Mothers • 献给所有的傻瓜妈妈

有一位博士问 “我如果有人上来登广告聘请一位员工，专门服侍生病的他，每天出外买菜煮给他吃，照顾他的生活起居，不但没工钱拿，还要出钱照顾他，你说有人会来应徵吗?”

我的答案是没有，他卖关子地说: “有... ...” 我心在想，会是傻瓜或神经病的人吗他说: “那个人就是妈妈。” 噢，原来如此，我这才恍然大悟。

每个人都不愿相信有人会做这种被视为傻瓜的事，但我们却相信我们的母亲每天自愿做傻瓜，真心做傻瓜，成为最典型的傻瓜妈妈。

妈妈不只是傻瓜，也是世界上最伟大的傻瓜。她们为了儿女，可以赴汤蹈火。她们为了儿女，可以牺牲一切。但这只限於真正为儿女而活得傻瓜妈妈，世界上也有很多抛夫弃子、六亲不认的妈妈，这是无情妈妈，不叫傻瓜妈妈。

傻瓜妈妈是最令人钦佩、敬爱、尊重的。她们为儿女无私的奉献，不求回报，是妈妈的最高境界。只有真正懂得回报母亲的恩情，才有资格被称为傻瓜儿女。

如今的孝道越来越薄弱，我们看见儿女对母亲的爱，要通过印尼女佣的手法传达。以前的社会，儿女牵着母亲的手去散步已见怪不怪，现在的社会，印尼女佣牵着母亲的手上巴杀，才是不稀奇的。

母亲只有一个，请在她有生之年，好好用自己的爱融入她的心、用自己的手去牵她、用自己的话跟她说、用自己的心去对她。请不要通过女佣去爱她，她要的东西很简单，一句问候一声关怀就够了。

傻瓜妈妈最傻的地方就是为了儿女，什么都可以付出，但不求回报。许多为人儿女偏偏听进妈妈最后这一句话，而把妈妈送进老人院、当球丢来踢去的。所以，傻瓜妈妈请记得把最后面那句话删掉，不然没有人会可怜你的悲惨命运。

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother’s Day. I wish all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day is a special day for children to show their gratitude; it also reminds that mother gives unconditional love to their children.

In this day, many children show their gratitude to their mothers, they will bring their mothers to an elegant restaurant to have a nice dinner. As you can see, around the corners, there are restaurants where children brought their mothers were waiting outside patiently. This is the most common way children would celebrate Mother’s Day with their mothers. But, after today, after this dinner, what is it to be?

After all these celebrations, children will get back to their works and be the busy bees in which they will not have much time left to spend their times with their mothers and do not even have the time to talk to them.

So, Mother’s Day is just like a day which all children can spend their time to accompany their mothers and show their gratitude. It is just today that children will buy carnations and bring their mothers to restaurants to have dinner.

Showing gratitude is not a trend to copy; it is not a fashion to follow. I think mothers will not like it either, when her children only spend this very day showing gratitude to her and another 364 days making her upset.

Gratitude and responsibility should be shown and taken by children every day and not just one day.

Do not just be a one-day-good-kid for your mother. Instead, be a 365-good-kid for your mother. If so, she will not even need a special Mother’s Day because of you being good every day is already an everyday Mother’s Day to her!

感恩的心，感谢有你，感谢有我

Yesterday was my brother's birthday party. This poem is dedicated to him.感恩的心，
感谢有你，
有你在身旁，
就有快乐，
永有喜日，
没有烦恼。

感恩的心，
感谢有你，
感谢你的出现，
让我拥获幸福，
给了无比陪伴，
让今天更精彩。

感恩的心，
感谢有我，
感恩我们永不放弃，
成了世上的亲兄弟。

感恩的心，
感谢有我，
感恩的信任，
我们一起分担。

最后，
我们感恩。
有你。
有我。

哥哥写给弟弟的一首诗。

My Birthday Boy ღ You Always

It has been two days... two days... I ain’t post nothing... due to some break downs in the system.

Yes. It has been great for the days. As I wish to mention here, it was my brother’s birthday, 11th of April. Grown up one more year, wiser. There is nothing I can give more than he had now; he has received presents from friends; wishes from friends.

Who do you think of when your birthday comes? For some people, they think of their friends; for some, they think of their siblings; for some, they think of their families; for some, they wish they could have a single thought in their minds, for them, it is the day they wish not to mention. Perhaps, for them, there is no one they can think of, and they just equally let it go.

Happy birthday boy. A sincere word costs more than priceless. I will love you, always.

Goddess of Mercy Birthday

Today is the Goddess of Mercy, what we Chinese called "Guan Yim Ma" in Hokkien. Still remember the movie of "I Not Stupid" which directed by Jack Neo of Singapore? The 'Kee Tang' (the person who communicates with the gods and goddesses) asked the mother of a child go to www.guanyimma.com and print some talisman (Ang Kong Hoo) and ask his son whose overboard to burn it and drink with water! Haha! (Its a fake! It is not existed!) - as this is for entertainment!

Aye. Today is the Goddess of Mercy birthday. Have you gone to the temples and give some simple praying to the Goddess? or perhaps you will play the Mantra of Heart or Mantras which related to Goddess of Mercy to listen.

Lunar Date: Second month, nineteenth day.

Here are the pictures I took in year 2005 when Ms Loh Pei Yee took us for a visit to Kek Lok Si before she finished her training in Chung Ling High School. It was 3 years back... I was having so much fun out there. And there was a foreign couple who asked me to take a snap for them with the Goddess of Mercy. How nice!