12 Chinese Zodiac

Every year Singapore will usher the Chinese New Year with the Singapore River Hongbao celebrations. This year it will be held at The Esplanade Park.

One of my favourite besides the God Of Fortune will be the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals. Some of the photos are not clear because there are just too many people waiting to take photo of these animals.

Legends had it that the Jade Emperor (from heaven) invited all the animals to a race, only twelve showed up: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

The Rat is the winner of the race and the pig is last. Legend had it that the Cat is supposed to join the race and ask the Rat to wake him up in time for the race but the Rat did not wake him up so there he has a better chance to win. Therefore the Cat and Rat are alway enemies.

Another Legend was that the Cow was supposed to be first in the race but the Rat who hitch a ride on the Cow's tail, bit the Cow's tail when nearer the finished point and the Cow in pain swing his tail and that swing landed the Rat in the finished point and so the Rat is first in the race.

There are many versions to the Origins of the Chinese Zodiac but the above was what I heard from my elders.

Rat

Cow

Tiger(sorry for poor photo)

Rabbit

Dragon

Snake

Horse

Goat

Monkey

Rooster

Dog

Pig

God of Fortune

I visited the Singapore River Hong Bao couple of days ago. It is part of Singapore’s way of celebrating the lunar new year.

This year, at the River Hongbao, there is a huge mascot of the God of Fortune and 12 mascots of the Chinese Zodiac Animals and other colourful decorations. There are other cultural exhibitions too and of course food and beverage stalls selling local and foreign delicacies. You can view those food stalls in my food blog.

The God of Fortune holding a couplet reads "Zhao Cai Jing Bao" which means usher in the wealth and riches.

As I was concentrating on which angle to take the photo of the God of Fortune, suddenly there was a guy who hit the gong which startled me. He announced in mandarin that the God of Fortune is here. And there is this chubby "God of Fortune" right in front of me.

He started tossing gold coins and one coin just landed in my hands. Hahaha.....although it is not real gold but the feeling is so good.

Hope this gold coin from God of Fortune will bring everyone Good Health, Good Luck and Good Fortune.

Ninth Day of Chinese New Year

On the 9th day of the Chinese New Year is the Hokkien custom to "Bai Tian Gong" or praying to the Heavenly God.

The Hokkien Chinese offer the Tian Gong with sugar canes, roast pigs and fruit but no cooked ducks or chickens.

Legend had it that when the Hokkiens, who lived along the coast, were attacked by pirates. They ran and hid in the sugarcane plantation. For many days they stayed in the plantation without food, but chewed the sugar canes to sustain their lives. When the pirates left, they came out of the sugarcane plantation and that day was the 9th day of the New Year.

From then on, every year on that day, the Hokkiens offer sugar canes to pray to the Heavenly God.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day. Here wishing a Happy Valentine's Day to all.

I make a heart shaped beads pendant but it is not specially for this occasion. It is just my interest. This is for my little niece who is always 'stealing' my completed crafts....hahaha.

Ren Ri

Today is the seventh day of the first chinese lunar month, - the day of man (ren ri). This meant it is everybody's birthday today. In Singapore and Malaysia, it is common to celebrate this day by tossing the colourful salad and wished for wealth and prosperity.

For full story and origins of Yusheng, you can view my food blog.

Chinese Clogs

These are chinese clogs. People used to wear these clogs, as they have thick wooden soles, so that their pants will not get dirtied on muddy water. These clogs are favourite in the bathroom too. My mom in law still has a pair in her bathroom.

Clog making is a dying trade. I used to wear them when I was young. You can view JC post, she has more colourful clogs in her photo.

The Majestic

Majestic Theatre was a Cantonese opera house built by philanthropist Eu Tong Sen for his wife who was a Cantonese opera fan. The theatre had been converted to a shopping mall and now being converted to a hotel called New Majestic Hotel but they would be keeping much of the exterior untouched to keep the heritage building image.

Each time I passed by the theatre (hotel now), I would looked at the beautiful craftsmanship of these opera figures. It has a long history, been built in 1928. During World War II, the Japanese took control of it (1942) and was used to screen Japanese propaganda films. The Japanese Occupation ended in 1945.

So the next time you passed by Majestic, please stop and admire the beautiful craftsmanship.

Lion Dance

I am back blogging after many days of merry making and celebrating Chinese New Year. I hope you all have a good time too.

These Lion Dance Mascots are part of Chinese New Year decorations of some shops.

Do you know that there are two types of Lion Dances? They are the Northern and Southern lion dance which differs in the appearance of the lion and the performance style.

Northern Lion Dance practised in Beijing, is more acrobatic with the lion balancing on balls and on see-saws whilst being enticed by a pugilist dressed as a 'warrior'. The pugilist teasing the lion uses a fan or a ball and the interplay between him and the lion is the focus of the dance. The Northern Lion evolved from a Mongolian animal puppet placed on a post and paraded during festivals. The Northern Lion is furry with an orange and yellow, woollen coat.

Southern Lion Dance is more popularly performed in Singapore, originated in Guangdong. It involves a less hairy Lion which is taunted by a big-headed clown. They traditionally perform outdoors, the cai qing or literally "plucking the green", referring to the acrobatic act of picking up a sprig of lettuce from as high as three storeys, achieved only by using a pole or forming a human pyramid. The Southern lion has a 'skin' of white/yellow and brown/ black patterns. Whilst the Northern Lion is reputedly fierce, with a serious temperament, the Southern Lion is tame and playful. (Source: http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_57_2004-12-27.html)

GONG XI FA CAI

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL THOSE WHO CELEBRATE CHINESE NEW YEAR.
As the year of the rat begins, here wishing all Good Luck, Good Health and Good Fortune for the years to come.

I will be absent from blogging but will be back blogging after Chinese New Year.

I have been tagged

I have been tagged by Clarice, CC of lacenribbonroses ,JC of Subang Jaya and Lara of Romania and have to provide five or six facts about myself and then tag five others who will all link back to the person who tagged them.

Not an easy job but I think I do the easy way out and tag all those who are on my link on the right hand side of the blog and those who wish to be tag to write five facts about themselves in their blog. I think it will be interesting to reveal a little of yourself.

Five facts about me:

1. I love travelling and taking lots of photos.

2. Love collecting unique things like this cocktail stirrer from Jarkata. This is my favourite collection of cocktail stirrers (hmmm...maybe I can write a post on these stirrers)

3. I am slightly older than my country..hahaha....(Clue: My country is 43 this year.)

4. I loved durians .....the king of fruit.

5. A very curious, fun loving and friendly person.

Now , that is hard to write about myself and hard to decide who to tag...hehehe....now over to those who wish to be tag, please write 5 facts about yourself.

P.S. Here is my post on cocktail stirrers.

Sri Marriamman temple in Chinatown

Sri Marriamman temple is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple dated back to 1827. The gopuram or the tower over the entrance of the temple is covered with figurative sculptures of gods and goddesses and mythological beasts, this tower is visible from afar so devotees can even say their prayers without stepping inside the temple. (Source: Uniquely Singapore).

These sculptures of gods are so lovely and well crafted.

Answer to Door Quiz

Yayyy, Gordon got the answer right and the answers given by the rest are very close too. Yes, the bells are for ringing...hahaha. Thank you for participating in the fun quiz.

The doors are part of a Hindu temple, Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple located in Chinatown . Gordon explained very well in his comments in my previous post.

At the door, devotees ask God to grant their requests by ringing the bells before entering. So that is the reason why the bells are there. They also purify themselves by washing their hands and feet, and sprinkling water on their heads. (Source: Uniquely Singapore)



I will post the pictures of the temple tomorrow. It will be very lovely and beautiful.

QUIZ NO. 1

Saw this beautiful door. They are so different in that one row is without bells and another row with bells. Can you guess why the bells are there?

I will tell you in another post where this door is and why the bells are there, after you have fun answering the quiz. Sorry no prize for guessing right cause I am a poor blogger with no sponsors...hahaha.

Wax Duck, Chinese Sausages, Wax Meat,

Wax Duck, Wax Meat, Chinese Sausages are a must during Chinese New Year. The prices are quite high at this moment and most Singaporeans will buy at the last few days of Chinese New Year as most prices will fall during that time and I am one of them too...lol. And if you go during the eve of Chinese New Year, the prices of most Chinese New Year products will drop tremedously.

But homecooked cookies are best ordered earlier and collected by this weekend as they are in great demand during the festive period.

For more Chinese New Year Food and Cookies:click here

Sunset

The photo may looked crooked...lol. I just put the camera through the window and just click the button...hahaha. Cause I dare not looked direct at the sun. I like the colour of the sky but the crane looked out of place.

Chinese Paper Cutting Crafts

Saw many chinese paper cuttings on sale in Chinatown. They are beautifully cut. Chinese Paper Cuttings is part of chinese culture where they are either cut by scissors or paper cutters.

The only paper cuttings that I know how to cut must be the chinese character "Shuang Xi" which means double happiness. I did that long ago during my wedding.

Ang Pow Lanterns

Ang Pow (hokkien language) or Hung Bao (mandarin language) also known as "red packets". The ang pow contained gifts of money. They are considered extremely auspicious to receive as a gift. They are commonly used for Chinese New Year, weddings, birthdays or happy occasions.

Ang pows can also used to make handicrafts. It is very common to find DIY ang pow lanterns in most chinese homes in Singapore. Only staples and glues are used to form the shapes of the lanterns. Accessories are then added to make them prettier. Ang Pows lanterns can only be found in Singapore and Malaysia but I have no idea who started this trend. The person is a genius who started this.

These are made by me. I am not very good in making them. There are prettier ones make by others. You can view them in here.

Koi Fishes

Koi is the Japanese word for carp.

Keeping Koi is a very expensive hobby. You need a good and big pond to keep them if you want your koi to grow to a huge size and healthily. The value of Koi depend on the colour of the fishes. The price can vary from a few dollars to thousands of dollars.

The kois you see here are not worth much because their colours are not very pretty but then I love them as much. Seeing them so huge and swimming about minding their own business is a joy.

But alas these Kois dont belong to me. The only koi in my home is the koi mould which I used to make "agar agar"....hahaha. You can view them in my food blog

Palm Tree

This photo was taken during my walks in botanic garden. The place was quite shady and when I looked up I saw this huge beautiful palm tree shading us. It looked like a huge umbrella.

Although we are 2 degrees north of the equator, Singapore is a garden city with many huge trees shading us.

You might like to know that we will have another huge garden in the city beside botanic garden. It will be known as Gardens by the Bay. It is still under construction (will be completed around 2010) and when completed will be very beautiful.

Gardens by the Bay will consists of three different gardens. It will grows flowers that are not able to grow in Singapore with the help of technology. In fact some of the flowers are already booming in nursery. For more photos of our future garden:Click here

Samsui Women

Today my post will be dedicated to a group of strong and independent woman. When I was very young, I used to count the number of samsui woman in Chinatown that I saw when my mom's car passed by them. The red hear gear is outstanding that caught my eyes.

The statue in front of Chinatown heritage is dedicated to a group of Samsui women in Singapore.

They are a group of mostly cantonese women from Samsui (means three water) province in China to travel to Singapore during their teens or mid twenties to work on construction sites in the early 20th century.

Some came here to work to escape poverty in China while some came here to gain independence.
Samsui women worked on construction sites alongside with the men. Their trademark being the red headgears that they wore. There was another group with blue headgears from Sun Yap another province of china but they were few compared to the Samsui women.

Most of them lived in cramped shophouses in Chinatown and most of them vow not to marry and usually tied their hair in a bun. They choose to work in hard labour rather than to be prostitutes.
The following is a newspaper cutting(from the Straits Times) few weeks back about a late Samsui Woman. You may pity her for picking up cardboards to sell but she is one independent and proud woman to accept any help from the government. There are many who are like her and share her attitude. Today there are about less than 100 of them still alive and they are in their 80s and 90s. They are being cared for by the Samsui Association in Singapore.

This is a restaurant advertisment with the Samsui Woman as its icon. The owner's grandmother is a former Samsui Woman. The signature dish for this restaurant is the Samsui Chicken.

The Samsui Women saved and ate very thrifty in order to remit monies back to their home in Samsui, China. During Chinese New Year, they would steam a chicken and dip in shredded ginger marinated in some stock and seasame oil. Today that chicken is known as Samsui Chicken.

Year of the Rat 2008

Yes, it is the year of the rat. At least at this Chinese New Year decorations, there is no Mickey Mouse here...lol.

And if you find this familar, this is the same place where the christmas decorations titled colourful whirl of christmas is. Only difference are the mouse decorations are in and the Carousel Horse decorations are out.

Kitem asked me: "I read on the net that the Rat is not such a nice character, I hope it's not true, will you tell us about the Rat character later on in your blog?"

I am not a fortune teller but I can tell you from sources I read...hahaha

The year of Rat arriving on 7th February 2008

The year of the Pig was a very unstable one. It is believed that 2008 the year of Rat is going to be an easier year for most of us in general. (Let's see if this is true.)

If those who are interested to know the character of the chinese zodiac, read on.

Source: Way OnNet Group (I got this source from a book send to us from Singapore Post)

Rat-Gentle, simple, optimistic, observant and meticulous. Inquisitive behaviour to get to the roots of matters.

Ox-A solemn, obstinate and quiet personality with ample patience and empathy. Down to earth, hardworking as well as loyalty towards friends.

Tiger-Highly motivated in work, righteous and public-spirited, coupled with exceptional organizing qualities in the company of challenges and pioneer spirit.

Rabbit-Gentle,kind,active and caring. Strong in achieving goal without being constrained.

Dragon-Impressive-looking,optimistic,direct,confident,dilligent in handling matters whilst set with a far-sighted goal.

Snake-Mysterious,careful,vigiliant and intelligent. Carry a sense of beauty depicting an artistic ability.

Horse-Traits of generousity, influential, independent, bold and unrestrained. Great versatility, often seen as a centre of attention.

Goat-Well-mannered, friendly and affable, sentimental, honest and magnanimous. Dislike putting on a front for others.

Monkey-Energetic, humourous, clever, agile,strong self-confidence and likeable.

Rooster-Full of vigor,gentle,modest and prudent with an eye for detail. Enjoy life and a fashion-conscious person.

Dog-A perfectionist with character of loyalty, honesty, hardworking, obedient, responsible and righteous.

Pig-A firm disposition, direct and friendly personality, beckoning someone of trustworthiness. Calm and steady character with good management of monetary affairs.

If you like to know your chinese zodiac, check out this website: http://www.chinesezodiac.com/calculator.php

You Make My Day Award

Clarice gave me this award and now I am passing to the following ten bloggers. (Not an easy task, those who are not in the awards it is probably I had yet to get to know your blog well.)

The award rules say: "Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

mygardenfence
brasovdailyphoto11
gardeninfrance
hydedailyphoto
kakinan(alex)
notasecretblog
menton-daily-photo
saintmalodailyphoto
subangdailyphoto
vietnamsamesame

"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)