"Chun Lian" or couplets

Clarice asked if red represent luck? I hope you can find your answer in today post. :)

Red can represent luck, happiness and joy but red can meant fire and power too. Legend had it that "Nian" a monster would attacked the villages during the spring festival (also known as Chinese New Year), but "Nian" is afraid of loud noises and the colour red. So the villagers frighten the monsters away by lighting firecrackers and pasting red papers all over the villages every spring.

Today the red papers comes with wordings and known as "Chun Lian" or couplets.

Couplets are always red and contained Chinese good luck sayings written on them. Pasting red couplets has been an important part of the Chinese New Year's celebration since ancient times.

The wordings are alway written in gold colour. They are usually pasted in the kitchens or on doors or door frames. But nowadays people pasted them all over the house. I was taught by my late traditional mom that the right wordings had to be placed in the correct position.

These are my old couplets . We need to change new couplets every chinese new year.

The above couplet reads "Zhao Cai Jing Bao" which means usher in the wealth and riches. This couplet can be pasted in the kitchen or on doors.

The above read "chang man" which means always full. So this is pasted on rice pot so that the pot will forever be full of rice and we wont go hungry.

Chinese New Year 2008

I saw these beautiful decorations in front of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown. I am not sure if they are part of the Chinese New Year Decorations or for prayers purposes. Anyway I find them attractive and cute so I just snap them with my camera.

I noticed most of them have lotus flowers with them. As this is a buddhist temple, the lotus flower has a meaning.

In Buddhism it is believed that the lotus is a water lily that grows in murky ponds and takes its roots in the black soil. Just as the beautiful lotus blossom grows from the mud, human beings can also detach themselves from suffering, to rise above the earthly and blossom as Buddhas.

Significantly, the color of the lotus too has an important bearing on the symbology associated with it:
1). White Lotus (Skt. pundarika; Tib. pad ma dkar po): This represents the state of spiritual perfection and total mental purity (bodhi). It is associated with the White Tara and proclaims her perfect nature, a quality which is reinforced by the color of her body.

2). Red Lotus (Skt. kamala; Tib: pad ma chu skyes): This signifies the original nature and purity of the heart (hrdya). It is the lotus of love, compassion, passion and all other qualities of the heart. It is the flower of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

3). Blue Lotus (Skt. utpala; Tib. ut pa la): This is a symbol of the victory of the spirit over the senses, and signifies the wisdom of knowledge. Not surprisingly, it is the preferred flower of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom.

4). Pink Lotus (Skt. padma; Tib. pad ma dmar po): This the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity. Thus naturally it is associated with the Great Buddha himself."

(Source:http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/general_symbols_buddhism.html)

Chinese New Year Decoration 2008 (Year of the Rat) at Chinatown

These are this coming Chinese New Year decorations for 2008. The chinese new year mood is not here yet and many stalls are still in the process of putting up their goodies and wares for Chinese New Year for sale. The chinese new year mood will be very high come end of this month and especially during the night.

Winnie the pooh and friends have decided to come to Singapore to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Why? Because they are celebrating the year of the rat with Mickey Mouse. Mickey is seen in many Chinese New Year Decorations and Cards, etc for the year of the rat.

Closer look at Mickey and Donald donning the lion dance suit. They looked cute.

Can you see Mickey and Minnie in the centre of the decorations?

Closer look at Mickey and Minnie Decorations. Have you noticed the chinese character "FU"? It's the only time when a Chinese word is hung/pasted upside down intentionally. The reason being "Fu dao" means "luck or fortune has arrived". But the word "dao" can also means upside-down or arrived. So, the character 福, fu, upside-down is a play on words implying fortune has arrived.

Integrated Resort, Sentosa, Singapore

SENTOSA OLD FERRY TERMINAL...............NOW YOU SEE IT................

NOW YOU DONT....................

Sentosa old ferry terminal is gone, demolished and make way for the much talked about Resorts World at Sentosa . The integrated resort will have hotels, water park, maritime museum,etc and of course the Casino and Universal Studio. It will be completed in a few years time. The other integrated resort will be at Marina.

I am looking forward to them, now I dont have to travel to USA to visit Universal Studio, and I think Singapore will be a more exciting place to visit for tourists.

Not to worry that the sea in front of Vivo City will be polluted with rubbish. The boat man above is there to take care of the cleaniness.

Antiques at the lobby of Singapore Swissotel Merchant Court

When I went to the Ellenborough Market Café at Swissotel Merchant Court Singapore for buffet, something beautiful caught my eyes besides the gorgeous and yummy buffet.

These antiques displayed at the lobby of the hotel are so beautiful that I cant resist taking photos of them.

The below photo is an antique bowl on displayed. It is a very huge bowl and the designs on the bowl are very lovely.

The vases on displayed are very tall about 6 feet. I think they are lovely and must be very expensive.

You need to go to the hotel for their sumptous buffet and dont forget to admire those beautiful art pieces.

Trishaw in Chinatown

Another entry for my chinatown postings. One way of getting around chinatown is to ride in a trishaw.

During the olden times, the trishaw is a two wheeled transport manually pulled by a man in front, it is known as rickshaw. Mostly the rich can afford to sit a trishaw back then. The man pulled rickshaw operated from Jinrickshaw Station in Neil Road.

Singapore Botanic Garden-National Orchid Gardens

This will be my last posting on Singapore Botanic Gardens. For more photos on plants, flowers and cactus, you can view them at my flower blog. I will post them there once I do some reseach on the names of the flowers, trees, etc. I am only an admirer of flowers and amazing trees so am not familiar with their names. :)

Admission to Singapore Botanic Garden is free but admission to its Orchid Garden is S$5.00. It is very worth the money cause there are so many beautiful and unique orchids in the garden.

There is also a VIP garden too where orchids are breed and named after VIP of other countries. I saw many VIP orchids but I failed to find those named after Princess Diana and First Lady of USA, Laura Bush, but I did snap the posters of their orchids. Will post them in my flower blog.

I am so delighted with the beautiful orchids. Their colours and their shapes are so eye catching.

I have yet to find out the names of the above orchids. I still have many photos of beautiful orchids but I have yet to sort them out.

It is a happy day for me at botanic garden. I took a lot of photos, spend quality time at the gardens and learn a lot about the orchids and the amazing trees and not forgetting about those sculptures and my close encounter with the swans. :)

Singapore Botanic Garden-Passing of Knowledge Scultpure

This sculpture is located in the Sun Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens where all the cactus are. I like this sculpture very much because I find it very meaningful. The sculpture is known as Passing of Knowledge. It really is like a father passing his knowledge to his child.

Beside this sculpture, there are many cactus plants in this Sun Garden. Geez, I really beginning to like the Botanic Garden, it changes so much since my last visit with my young sons. But my sons are now all grown up, and just like the name of the sculpture, we as parents had passed our knowledge to them. :)

The Passing of Knowledge sculpture (2003) by local sculptor Victor Tan Wee Tar
(Source:http://www.sbg.org.sg/tanglincore/sungarden.asp)

Swing Me Mama Sculpture

Swing Me Mama was sculpted by Dominic Benhura in 1995 using serpentine (spring stone). His inspiration for the sculpture sprung when he was swinging his kids. (source:http://www.sbg.org.sg/tanglincore/sculptures.asp)

I would alway swinged my kids this way too when they were young. I think the sculpture really shows the bond between a mother and her child. There are more sculptures in the Singapore Botanic Garden but alas it rained heavily and I was too tired to continue walking to look at the other attractions in the garden, what a pity.

Singapore Botanic Garden-Swan Lake

This is the Swan Lake in Singapore Botanic Gardens. It used to have many swans but I spotted only two swans. I wondered where all the black swans had gone.

Not sure everyone interested in my tales with these two swans....lol. I thought I would go home empty handed without photos of the swans. The two swans were spotted at the far end of the pond and then I tried to get their attention but the swans just ignore me and ate their food. Just as I was about to give up, these two lovely swans swam so fast to me like a motor boat. It is kind of funny....hahaha. Did you spot their webbed feet, they paddled very fast towards us with their feet.





And now I am so satisfied taking so many photos of these two swans, they actually swam so close to us and stay with us for a long time. I enjoy the moment with the swans and had a fun time at Swans Lake.

Tembusu Tree at Singapore Botanic Gardens

The Tembusu tree at Singapore Botanic Gardens has been identified as a heritage tree and is featured on the Singapore $5 currency note and in postage stamps.

Closer look at a $5 bill of Singapore, where you can see the famous tree.

The uniqueness of this tree is the long branch that grows out from the trunk almost touching the ground and we can actually sit or lie on it. I have fond memories of this tree where my siblings and I would climbed on this tree during our childhood and we had so much fun.

So precious is this heritage tree that it was protected against lightning damages. If you look closely you can view the lightning conductors.

Closer look at the hole in the trunk of the tree, we can actually put our head through the hole.

Singapore Botanic Garden

Singapore Botanic Garden has a very long history. You can view them at http://www.sbg.org.sg/aboutus/ourhistory.asp

This is the main gate of Singapore Botanic Garden and known as Tanglin Gate. This is not a black and white photo, the gate is grey and if you look closely at the tree behind, you can see the green leaves. The gate is very interesting with all the designs.

So what lies behind these beautiful gates. You need to follow my posts closely for the next few days to view them. I hope you will be fascinated by them.

Closer look at the designs of the gate.

The botanic garden is so big that I could only cover about half the garden. The garden is divided into the Tanglin Core, Central Core and Bukit Timah Core.

When the rain came, I had to leave without visiting the Evolution Garden. I guess I will visit the other half of the garden on another visit. Anyway, I was so tired and could not continue walking anymore.....lol. I really enjoyed myself taking photos of the garden and the beautiful flowers.

So you all could guess by now what my next few posts will be about by looking at the above signboard. :)