Festival Of The Nine Emperor Gods

Today is the 9th day of the 9th lunar month (九月初九). It is the day on which the Nine Emperor Gods Festival culminates. Nine Emperor Gods is 九皇爷 (Jiu Huang Ye in Mandarin, Kew Ong Yeah in Hokkien or Kow Wong Yeh in Cantonese).

The following passage is extracted from this website:

"This Chinese festival lasts for nine days. Following the Chinese lunar calendar, it is usually held during September and/or October. Activities centre around the Nine Emperor Gods Temple at Upper Serangoon Road, near Little India! You will find the temple near Yio Chu Kang Road.

This is a noisy celebration, as Chinese worshippers welcome the visitation of the Nine Emperor Gods who bring good fortune, longevity and health to the sound of drums and cymbals. Priests write out protective charms with their blood, and the festival climaxes with a parade of the nine gods, each carried in a large and elaborate sedan chair."

Next to Eunos MRT station and at a temple near my place, this festival is being celebrated. I took the following photos last weekend:


A traditional Wayang stage and show



Nearby tentage housing paraphernalia for prayers - notice the 9 flags, each representing an Emperor God



"Up-sized" joss sticks



The Chinese temple near my place



Lantern in the shape of a dragon, a mythical and traditional creature commonly used to adorn Chinese temples



Dragon head, close-up



A not-so-traditional decorative lantern



Hmm... could it have been inspired by or rather, mutated from the above icons?



9 lanterns, each representing an Emperor God



Lantern representing the First Emperor God



Procession vehicle



Procession vehicle transporting temple volunteers



Sedan of one of the Emperor Gods



Another sedan up on a vehicle



Essential transport as arrival and departure of the Emperor Gods are believed to be via waterways



The band (note that the $10 and $50 bills at the top of the photo are real money, possibly donations from temple devotees)



Joss paper scattered on the ground after the procession


This festival is currently still commonly observed by many Chinese temples in Singapore. However, it is anybody's guess how long this tradition is going to last. As a Business Times article dated 24 August 2007 about Mr Jimmy Lam, a Singaporean photographer puts it:

"Today, with local wayang and festivals like the Nine Emperor Gods becoming a rare sight on the streets of Singapore, Lam has made it his mission to photograph the indigenous culture of Asia before it vanishes in the march of modernity here.

'I've been documenting Asia for the last 12 years, because I've been through it myself - growing up amidst a place full of culture and then finding it swept away by modernity, inevitably,' he explains."

You can read more about this festival from the following links:

1. Wikipedia;

2. Becky Whitlock of Bath, UK witnessed the festival celebrations at the Upper Serangoon Road temple on 4 October 2003 and wrote a very animated account of the festival celebrations complete with photographs.

Mooncakes And An Old Hotel That Sold Them

My younger son's school celebrated Mooncake Festival (also known as Mid-autumn Festival or Zhong Qiu Jie 中秋节) last Saturday night. The turnout was very good.

As usual, cute lanterns made by pupils were on display.


So were mooncakes.


And of course games too.


For this game, We were given riddles. We were required to guess a Chinese character from the clues given. There was this one (column 4, row 4, on grey-coloured paper in the above photo):

多说多错, 少说少错

Can you guess what's the Chinese character? Well, I couldn't. (The answer will be revealed on Sunday in comments to this post.)

As a kid, I played with traditional lanterns bought from the neighbourhood provision shop. A collapsible one like the one below cost about 10 cents only. It would come with a bamboo stick for you to hang the lantern from. To light up the lantern, you have to buy a box of 20 candles which cost maybe another 20 cents.


My mum sometimes rewarded me by buying a more expensive and beautiful lantern such as these:


These traditional lanterns are still available in some shops today. They are made of cellophane paper, mostly of red, blue, green and yellow colours which are glued onto wire frames bent into shapes of goldfishes, dragons, aeroplanes, rugby balls, etc. They are then hand-painted to make them look very attractive.

Talking about mooncake festival, I remember an old hotel which sold mooncakes under its name in the 1960s. This could very well be the first local hotel that started selling mooncakes using a hotel's name. The hotel was called Queens Hotel or Huang Hou Jiu Lou (皇后酒楼). The hotel was probably demolished in the late 1980s.

The hotel was situated in a very good location, only a stone's throw away from the famous Raffles Hotel. It was located at the junction of Middle Road and Victoria Street, i.e. the new National Library site. I could see it from the balcony of my 4th-storey SIT flat in Cheng Yan Place.

Every year when Mooncake Festival approached, the facade of the hotel would be decked up with blinking lights. The front facade of the hotel had a panel for hotel advertisements. Just before Mooncake festival, the photo on the panel would be changed to one of a Chinese queen complete with traditional dress and headgear, holding a vertical banner proclaiming "Queens Mooncakes" or Huang Hou Yue Bing (皇后月饼)．

Too bad, I don't have a photo of the front facade to show you. However, I can show you what the inside of the hotel looked like with photos by courtesy of the National Archives Of Singapore (NAS):


The reception. (Doesn't it look uncannily similar to the one in the British comedy, Fawlty Towers?) On the left of the photo is the cage lift. It actually looks more like a dog cage.


The cage lift. (It looks similar upside down. That is probably why NAS made the error in the watermark, haha.) It had a collapsible gate and was operated by a lift attendant. There were two sets of gates that needed to be opened and closed manually by the attendant before the lift could be operated. The outer set was fixed and is the one that you see in the above photo. The inner set was attached to the cage itself and moved up and down together with it. You had to be careful not to stick your hand through the gate when the lift was in motion or you could suffer grievous injury.

Air View Hotel in Peck Seah Street used to have a cage lift too. So did Public Service Commission's old office in the now Supreme Court building.


The so-called "night club and restaurant". Countless couples held their wedding dinners in this restaurant and shouted "yam seng" from this stage. (Note the formica table and chairs as well as the empty wooden crates on the stage which were used to hold beer and soft drink bottles.)

If throwing in a free hotel room was a common practice for couples who booked wedding banquets at the hotel then, the newly-wed couple would probably be given a room like this one:


Fortunately, it was not a common practice then. Otherwise, I don't think that a honeymoon night in a non-airconditioned room would have been very memorable for a newly-wed couple. Well, at least it had a wash basin, a functional dressing table and a ceiling fan.

Today is the Mooncake Festival. Have a fun mid-autumn, everyone.

Notes:

1. In the last photo, you can see Bras Basah Complex in the left window.

2. Read Laokokok's very informative article on the Mooncake Festival.

Corrections:

As correctly pointed out by Anonymous today, the correct English name of the hotel should be Empress Hotel and not Queens Hotel. I have forgotten its English name and thought it was the latter. The surprising thing is that when I used "Queens Hotel" as a search string on NAS' Picture Archives, it threw up the 4 correct photos but classified under the wrong name "Queens Hotel". You can call that a comedy of errors. Obviously, it is another case of something lost in translation. Thanks to Anonymous for pointing out the mistake.

Using "Empress Hotel" as a search string, I found the following two NAS photos of the exterior of the building:

View from Victoria Street. Empress Hotel was a 5-storey building.

View from the opposite corner of the junction - the words "Empress Hotel" can be seen below the Chinese characters on the signboard. Just above the signboard was where the large mooncake advertisement of about 2-storey height would be displayed.

Some Unusual Sights At East Coast Park (2)

This morning while cycling alone at East Coast Park, I saw an unusual sight on the beach. No, I didn't see a beached whale, a dugong or even a girl bathing on the beach.

First, I saw a discarded sandal near the beach:


Then some worship items:


And a large crowd:


"Oh no! Not another drowning incident!", I thought to myself and feared the worst.

But wait a minute. I heard some drum beats when I got nearer. They were happy and lively beats:


I looked towards the sea and saw this scene:


When I finally realised what was happening, I heaved a sigh of relief. It was actually an immersion ceremony for the statue of Lord Ganesha. It was part of the Hindu celebrations for the Ganesh Festival (also called Ganesh Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chaturthi).

At the end of the ceremony, the priest handed each devotee some whitish flour-like substance. I guess it was meant as a blessing.


I spoke to one of the devotees. He told me that this was the first time that such a ceremony was held in Singapore. After hearing that, I felt so fortunate to have witnessed the event.

This must have been the lorry that transported the Lord Ganesha statue and some of the devotees:


An event banner displayed nearby:


Too bad, I don't understand a word on the banner. Maybe Shilpa can help me out? Also, does anyone know what was the white stuff which the priest handed out at the end of the ceremony? Was it a mixture of flour and grated coconut?

Just in case you think that I am totally ignorant of Indian culture, here's a quiz question for you - what is the bow-like thing carried by the man in the photo of drummers?

5 CNY Traditions

(Caution: This is a very long post. Read only when you have the time and when the boss is not looking.)

Everybody I know in blogosphere seems to be blogging about Chinese New Year (CNY). First Chun See and then Chris. Looks like I must also keep up with this tradition and blog about 5 CNY traditions (not including the one on blogging about CNY). I have blogged about Chinese New Year visits last year. So this year, I shall just cover 2 places our family visited. I am writing about the following 5 things: the re-union dinner (nian ye fan 年夜饭 or tuan yuan fan 团员饭), a visit to River Hong Bao, a visit to NAMOS, the lion dance (wu shi 舞狮) and home decorations.


1. The Re-union Dinner (nian ye fan 年夜饭 or tuan yuan fan 团员饭)

The re-union dinner is a must-have CNY tradition. But increasingly, more and more families are not having home-cooked re-union dinners. (Not everyone is as fortunate as Chris even though a steamboat is more like a self-cooked meal rather than a home-cooked one.) The reason for this trend is due to several reasons. Firstly, Singaporeans are generally getting wealthier and most could afford a re-union dinner at a restaurant. Anyway, the dinner comes but once a year and there's really no need to stinge. Secondly, most cooks family matriachs (as Chris so elegantly puts it) are getting older, that is if they are still around. It is certainly tough work whipping up an elaborate dinner for dozens of people from extended families, even though it is only a 'simple' steamboat dinner. And then there is the cleaning up afterwards - not just the dishes but also the mopping of the floor. We are wealthier but not all of us will lend a helping hand can afford a maid or even want one.

This year (and last), we had our re-union dinner at the Soup Restaurant at Terminal 2 of Changi Airport. Many other people had the same idea as us too - the restaurant was already fully booked for CNY eve when we enquired one week earlier. So we had to settle for dinner on the eve of CNY eve, i.e. Friday, 16 Feb 2007. A simple dinner for 7 adults and 5 children came up to $184, a very reasonable amount by any standard. Okay, we didn't have sharks fins, abalone or yu sheng but still, we had great company which is the real point of having a re-union dinner, isn't it?

2. A Visit To River Hong Bao

It has been a tradition for Singapore to hold a River Hong Bao carnival in conjunction with the CNY for many years already now. (However, this was the first time that my family visited the carnival on CNY eve, immediately after having our very own informal 're-union' dinner at Hong Kong Cafe in East Coast Road.) This year, the carnival is held at the Esplanade Park just next to the Padang, a popular place for courting couples in the middle of the last century. I took some photos of the carnival and of the scenery in the vicinity. Do bring your family there if you can spare the time as it is worth a visit. I think the carnival ends on the 15th day of CNY.

















3. A Visit To NAMOS




Admission to the NAMOS (National Museum Of Singapore) was free on 19 Feb 2007. (Normal admission charges are $10 for adult and $5 for children.) As Singaporeans love to queue, and my family is Singaporean, we were there that day. The NAMOS was re-opened to the public only a few months ago.

I must say that the new NAMOS is very high-tech and impressive, especially the History Gallery. You see, every visitor is given an electronic gadget called a Companion. As you walk within the gallery, there is a large number printed on the floor within each exhibit area. Key in the number on your Companion, hit the 'Go' button and the companion will narrate (through clip-on headphones) related stories about the exhibit area.



Next to some exhibits there are numbers which you could key into the Companion to retrieve text about the exhibit. Cool. However, although there is a choice of text in various languages, including Japanese, narration is only in available in English.

It is dimly lit within the History Gallery. I nearly tripped over a dark-colour bench while spending quality time with my Companion and almost sprained my ankle again.

If you visit the History Gallery during CNY and are superstitious, be prepared to come face to face to a traditional Chinese funeral complete with a real coffin exhibit:





Because of the above reasons, I would recommend that illiterate and superstitious IT idiots, especially the elderly should give NAMOS a miss. (My sincere apologies to Walter. This is just my sincere personal opinion.)


4. The Lion Dance (wu shi 舞狮)

The lion dance performance during CNY is known as cai qing (采青). During the performance, a big red packet (hong bao 红包) is suspended high at the end of a bamboo stick. By 'big', I don't mean the physical size of the red packet but the money enclosed within it, of course. The red packet is usually camouflaged by some green vegetables (although I still can't figure out how green vegetables can effectively camouflage a red packet unless the lion happened to be colour-blind).

Unlike the re-union dinner, the lion dance is not a must-have. Although I have seen lion troupes perform at HDB flats before, most families do not summon a lion dance troupe to perform at their homes. For one thing, lion dances obviously do not come cheap. I do not know the market price for a performance but I guess it must in the region of hundreds of dollars. Hence, most lion dances are performed at business premises where expenses for lion dances are probably tax-deductible.

However on 19 Feb 2007 (2nd day of CNY or 大年初二), I witnessed a lion dance performance at an unusual location - the Singapore Philatelic Museum. It must be hoping that the lion dance will somehow boost the visitor numbers to the museum in the Year Of The Golden Pig. (Walter, can confirm this?)



5. Home Decorations

There are certain things that we decorate our homes with during CNY and they each has a symbolic meaning.

Spring Couplets (chun lian 春联) herald good luck for CNY:


Flowers welcome the arrival of spring and symbolises renewal:



Lanterns symbolise a bright future:



Oranges symbolise gold or wealth:



Pineapples (huang li 黄梨) sounds like (wang lai 旺来), especially in dialects and literally means 'prosperity comes':



I learnt from the show 'I Not Stupid 2' that some Chinese believe that if a pregnant woman eats a lot of pineapple, the baby might be aborted. Of course, this is not true otherwise we don't need any obstetricians and gynaecologists.

However, I only learnt recently that a certain part of the pineapple can be used to pleasure a woman. Not the thorny crown or the rough skin, mind you, otherwise you would really need an obstetrician and gynaecologist. I shall not go into further details here as I treasure my coconuts, a symbol of the reason for my maleness and virility. I don't know how true this claim is as I dare not try it.

Some Chinese even display two pineapples in their homes during CNY as they believe that everything should come in a pair:



Chris and Walter, no prizes for guessing where the second pineapple should fit into.

Muahahaha.