The 7th moon is here

Another public holiday last weekend ! belated post  and a lenghty one..........

Image : Google Search

Its our National Day ! 
 on 31st  August 2012, giving me another three days weekend !

Also, according to the Chinese calender, 17th August enters a new moon, its the 7th month on the 15th day and hence, the gate of  the hell realm is opened allowing the spirits to wonders to the human world. This is the Ghost Festival or also known as the  Hungry Ghost Festival. DH & me, minus the kids took the 30minutes drive back to his hometown for the festivity that evening

The main shrine

Almost as important as honoring the ancestors, offerings to ghosts without families must be made so as the dead will not disturb the living. The ceremony is usually held at dusk. It's believed that this is the day when these spirits are malevolent  due to their sufferings, thus,  it’s important to give them a sumptuous feast so they can be at peace and harm no one, meaning the living. Taoists and Buddhists perform ceremonies on this day to ease the sufferings of the deceased.

At the festival, I am more attracted to the offerings on displayed, because it bring out the crafters, its like a case of showing-off  their offering presentation skills, and no denial that these village people are a crafty lot and you don't get to see  a repeat from last year either, LOL. Below are some of the paper crafts  from joss papers (origami technique) that am amazed

I just loved the pineapples at the far end?

Barbie never fails to make an appearance

one of the dresses are made from Tiger beer bottle caps

Note to WSG members  !!  : "Bangali Peng", LOL stacked on top of three layers of colourful jellies, sorry bad quality photos as all the photos are caught with my mobile

Amazing what dough can do

One of the richly ornamented "Black Gold" Mountain

sitting on stacks of joss paper, black gold are actually charcoal

The amount of joss papers from one contributors alone, and this is only one,  imagined burning all the above paper mache' plus all that from the venue of a basketball court

Its like a big bonfire night !!

(Image from google search, I didn't wait till the end for the burning) 

On occasions such as these, the humans feasted too, a jolly good time to celebrate while waiting for the occasion to end, its also the place where you get to meet old friends or acquaintances, especially when the venue is in one's hometown.

BeLiEve it or NoT ! This is considered to be an Inauspicious Month
The month is considered  a bad time to indulge in activities such as evening strolls, travelling, moving house, or starting a new business. People avoid water sports too, since its believed that water spirits will be lurking around in search of victims.....scary huh ? or old wife's tales?

The three days is a welcome break for me, I know I just had nine, but it never seems enough, right? I finally got to bake a Banana Bread on Sunday, my second attempt with another recipe I found from google, which tastes better and moist compared to my first which was a bit dry . This bake was a bit too sweet  for my taste despite I had cut down on the sugar by half a cup since  the bunch of bananas I bought was somewhat sweet, so I must remember to cut down  more for my next.  I also added crushed almonds when the recipe did not, giving it a bit of a crunchy in between bites.

and Sunday lunch was one of my lazy cooking, my version of  Spicy Fried Rice, with ingredients from whatever I find in the fridge, totally laziness for a reason

So I get to have some time to work on my last installment, Once Upon A Time, Chart 3

I gave myself one year to complete this and I am already running late with my August dateline.

I could have accomplished more if not being drawn away to attend some  matters :(

 Thanks for coming back, hope you enjoyed reading another festivity posting with a tiny bits on my WIP