Yu Lan Shen Hui or Hungry Ghosts' Month

Today is the fifteenth day of Yu Lan Shen Hui dedicated to beings in the Ghosts' Realm. Every where you can see most of the Chinese buying cakes, fruits, 'buah rambai' (a type of fruit that comes in bunches) to be offered to the Hungry Ghosts when they pray.

According to Buddhism, there are six realms one has to go through if one has not attained nirvana. One of the realms is the hungry ghosts. It is believed that the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the month when hungry are released from the Ghosts' Realm. Hence their relatives who are still living will offer food for them, especially today although it lasts for a month.

It reminds the Buddhists that they should do good and practise Buddhism so that when they pass away they will be born as beings outside the samsara (Six Realms, which are human beings, dewas, azuras, animals, ghosts and hell) and stop the rebirth processes.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

I would like to greet all Muslims a 'Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri'  after having observed fasting for a month. They will celebrate their success in overcoming hunger during the day from dawn until sunset for the said period. The act teaches them to appreciate the suffering of the poor especially those who have to go hungry because of the scarcity of food caused by drought or war.

The Malays in Malaysia usually will have open houses and invite friends of other races to enjoy the food prepared for them. These include 'lemang' (glutinous rice put in bamboo and placed over the fire to be cooked), 'ketupat' (glutinous rice wrapped in coconut leaves and steamed), 'dodol' (glutinous rice stirred continuously while being cooked for hours until the mixture of sugar and rice turn brown', 'rendang' (chicken or beef cooked in spices until it is well done) and other Malay 'kuih'. Personally I like to eat 'ketupat' and 'dodol'. Being more of a vegetarian now, I do not like the meat stuff.

Once again, I would like to extend my belated greeting to all readers who are Muslims on this festive occasion.

Watching the London Olympic Games 2012

I am sure most of us will watch the 4-year-once Olympic Games. For this year, the venue is in London. I am very happy to be able to watch the games through my computer. The International Olympic Council has done a good job by asking Youtube to show the video clips to the world. Because of this arrangement, we can go to the following website to watch the games:
www.youtube.com/olympic

There are also video clips of past events which you might have missed. You can click them and let the Samsung Galaxy S3's ads disturb you for 30 seconds. Then the video clips will start to play. If you like the clips and would like to watch them again later on, you can right click the url of the video clips and download with Free Youtube Downloader so that you can watch them offline and delete them when you don't want them anymore.

Go to the site and start watching the games at real time now.