During the weekend, the whole family gathered at my brother's house to pray to our late parents for the seventh month of the year also known as Zhong Yuan Jie or Mid Year Festival or the Hungry Ghost Festival or the feast for the wandering soul. Normally prayers will be held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month but as 15th day of the seventh lunar month falls on a weekday and most will be working so majority of chinese will celebrate the day praying to their deceased close family members earlier on weekend before the 15th day.
Most might think Ghost Festival sounds eerie but it is actually a joyous affair where the whole family gathered together to pray to our ancestors. I saw this
blogwhich is very interesting describing the ghost festival.
As my brother is taoist, food were offered to our late parents as part of the prayers. There were so much yummy food that of course after prayers, we tucked into them and really have a good time. The above photo were the ingredients for making popiah (a kind of not deep fried spring roll), they were cooked by my eldest sister.
We just had to put all the ingredients onto the popiah skin and rolled them up and eat it, very healthy better than the deep fried spring roll.
The above photo of potato patties or begedil prepared and cooked by my sister's indonesian domestic helper. Yummy.
Assorted nonya kueh (cakes)- some in durian flavour - so yummy.
We had other fruits too but I liked these organic strawberries, they were so sweet. At this time, I really drools thinking of the food we ate during the weekend, hahaha.
And what best was the sight of these beautiful keng hua or epiphyllum flowers that grows from the plants in my brother's house. There were about six flowers on one plant and another two blooms on another plant. Wow what a wonderful day it was but too bad none wanted to stay till midnight to take photo of the full bloom of the flowers...lol. These flowers only bloom for a short while at midnight.
For photos on other parts of the world, please visit
Our World Tuesday Meme. Thanks to the team of Our World for giving us the opportunity to share my world with the rest of the world.
This is the KK Women's and Children's Hospital , formerly known as "Kandang Kerbau Hospital", is the largest hospital specialising in healthcare for women and children in Singapore. In 1966, the hospital entered the Guinness Book of Records for delivering the highest number of newborns within a single maternity facility for that year, and it continued to hold on to this record for a full decade, delivering 85% of the population. Fifty two years ago, I was born in Kandang Berbau Hospital too but not in this new, clean looking building, the old hospital was located on the site opposite this new hospital. Back then we were the baby boomers, too many babies and not enough hospital beds.
Singapore, just like many countries is facing a low birth rate problem. To encourage parenthood, the government gives out baby bonuses of up to S$4,000 ($3,200) for each of the first two children, rising to S$6,000 for the third and fourth. It also matches deposits made into a Child Development Account. Mother has a four month maternity leave and there's talk about having paternity leave for the father too to encourage more to have babies. What policies do your country implement to encourage or discourage citizens to have more babies?
