The BANG! and the BOMB! exploded minutes before midnight and the dark sky with a cloudy half moon became a battle field of fireworks signalling the start of Thi Kong Seh, a thanksgiving prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven. 
The ninth day of the Chinese New Year begins at midnight Sunday, is the most significant to the Hokkien Chinese. Not only its the Jade Emperor of Heaven's Birthday. It is on this day that the Hokkien community in ancient China survived an intended massacre by their enemies by hiding in a field of sugarcane and believed that the Jade Emperor had protected them from extermination. Since then, Hokkiens have thanked the Jade Emperor for his intervention on the 9th day by offering a thanksgiving prayers and having sugarcane as part of their offerings. 
Sugarcane tied to a pole at entrance of the house from MIL's mini garden
The must have offering
The food offerings in its particular order
'Kim Chua' joss paper
another teapot which I think is from a tea company and a shocking mail, a supposedly sealed greeting card from UK that arrived opened and left in my mail box.
My cousin sis had mailed this card to mom with a bit of news about her family and it felt a bit thick on one side of the envelope. Someone must have thought it to contained something...like an 'angpow' maybe? Mail theft !! Imagine mailman are no longer trustworthy to handle our mails these days..horror !!
Wished I had my camera with me to capture the half moon but all I had was my cellphone as I had left my camera behind when I came home earlier and the moon was too blurry on my cellphone including some images here.
The ninth day of the Chinese New Year begins at midnight Sunday, is the most significant to the Hokkien Chinese. Not only its the Jade Emperor of Heaven's Birthday. It is on this day that the Hokkien community in ancient China survived an intended massacre by their enemies by hiding in a field of sugarcane and believed that the Jade Emperor had protected them from extermination. Since then, Hokkiens have thanked the Jade Emperor for his intervention on the 9th day by offering a thanksgiving prayers and having sugarcane as part of their offerings. Sugarcane tied to a pole at entrance of the house from MIL's mini gardenThe must have offeringThe food offerings in its particular order'Kim Chua' joss paperanother teapot which I think is from a tea company and a shocking mail, a supposedly sealed greeting card from UK that arrived opened and left in my mail box.My cousin sis had mailed this card to mom with a bit of news about her family and it felt a bit thick on one side of the envelope. Someone must have thought it to contained something...like an 'angpow' maybe? Mail theft !! Imagine mailman are no longer trustworthy to handle our mails these days..horror !!Wished I had my camera with me to capture the half moon but all I had was my cellphone as I had left my camera behind when I came home earlier and the moon was too blurry on my cellphone including some images here.
Physically, I am back at work officially since yesterday, mentally, I think the holiday should last until the 15th day or the 16th, an extra day to rest...LOL!
Chinese New Year will end this weekend, so will February. It didn't felt like a month has gone by.
Stitching wise, I have completed my HoE LLN/CCN theme exchange piece except for finishing, I am currently having metal block as what to finish it into. Maybe this weekend I will think of something as the exchange dateline is due 1st week of March.
Till next week then my friends? Thanks for your ever lovely comments
5 comments:
Sorry to hear of the post that was opened, hope the contents still inside.
Goodluck with the finishing for the exchange.
Gong Xi Fa Cai to you too! There were certainly more fireworks on the 8th night than there were on CNY's eve!
It's bad how some postal workers are giving the country a bad name! Hope nothing was missing from the torn envelope.
good to read about the chinese New year celebrations
That's a good fire work pic (I know how hard it is to take a good one!). From my son I know that this year, the Chines new year and Valentine's Day would fall on the same day. Sound like you had a lot of scrumptious food to eat!!
So, are you Chinese? I thought you were Malaysian or Indonesian?
Sounds like you're enjoying the Chinese New Year celebrations. Sorry about your mail snafu. :(
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