Dong Zhi is here again

Dong Zhi is here today. To the Chinese, it means they will be one year older on this very day. Every we go, especially at the market place, tangyuen or glutinous rice dumplings will be on sale. After savouring tangyuen you are considered to have gain one more year in age.

According to one legend, tangyuen was prepared to signify reunion of family members. The story had it that one day, a father, a mother and a daughter was travelling in the cold looking for food. The mother was too tired to walk anymore and finally she died of exhaustion. In order to pay for her burial, the father was force to sell his daughter to be a slave to a rich man. Before leaving her to her master, the father begged for some porridge to feed her to wake her up from her being unconscious because she fainted owing to fatigue. When she finally came to, the father again went to ask for some glutinous rice balls for her to eat. The filial daughter would not eat it, neither would the father. Hence they broke the rice balls into halves to be shared among them, promising to eat full rice balls when they met again one day.

The next year, the daughter asked her master to make rice balls to be placed on the door outside the house in the hope that her father would see them and came to see her. However, she was disappointed. The following year, she put the rice balls all over the places. The neighbours also do the same to help her find her father. Later eating glutinous rice dumplings became a custom to signify reunion of family members.

So much for the origin of tangyuen.

Happy Dong Zhi to everyone.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Today is Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the New Year of all Muslims who fasted a month before this. It is a feat as it is not easy to abstain from food unless you have been doing it every year like the Muslims. As I have said before, fasting is good for health for when our body stops receiving food for a certain period, the organs inside our body will do repair work to all the organs function even better. Detoxification is one of the processes that will take place when we fast.

Before I end this post, I would like to wish once again a very happy 'Hari Raya Aidilfitri' to all Muslims in Malaysia and all over the world.

Something to remember on Wesak Day

Happy Wesak Day to all Buddhists. In today's post, I would like to remind readers of the teachings of Buddha so that we will emulate Him and be good citizens of the world.

Basically, Gautama Buddha who had attained enlightenment or buddhahood told the world the truth about our lives. According to the Buddha, humann beings suffer because of three things, namely avarice, hatred and delusion.

When we are greedy, we are satisfied with what we have and hence crave for more things. Sometimes we resort to stealing, cheating or murdering in order to get what we want. Such act will land us in trouble. We may be caught and put in jail to suffer. Being not contented with what we have already possessed makes us unhappy - an example of suffering.

Hating others will also make us unhappy. Such feeling may lead to insulting others by words, injuring others by weapons and ending the lives of others by some other means. Once again, we suffer because of this feeling or harbouring hatred towards others.

Delusion is the state of not fully understanding the true nature of things. We think that things around us are forever ours. This is not true. Even the water in the glass keeps changing in terms of the movement of molecules within. It becomes less and less as the molecules  gain more energy and change into vapour and escape into the air. Hence we feel very sad when someone dear to us passes away.

To overcome the three evils, we must practise dana or donating things to others to get rid of greed or avarice. If we are willing to part with our money or things so that they go to the needy, we are not greedy anymore. In fact doing dana will reap things many folds in return if it is practised with sincerity and without attachment whatsoever.

As for surmounting the hurdle of hatred, we should practise loving kindness and compasion towards others. According to Buddhism, beings around us might be our relatives sometime in the past when rebirths occur every now and then. Think of the one you hate as your mother, sister or aunt if the person is a female and think of him as your father, brother or uncle. The one you hate is your relative in the past and hence you should forgive him and love him or her stead.

Delusion can only be overcome if we understand the impermanence of things around us. There is nothing that last forever. Hence we should practise detachment. We must not cling to someone as if he or she will be forever ours. We have to say goodbye to our beloved when the time comes and we should attach too much to him or her so that the feeling of loss will bot be so great.

So much for some reminder of the teaching of the Buddha on Wesak Day today.

Kitchen Deity is back today

The Kitchen Deity is back today after having been in the Jade Emperor's Palace for four days reporting the going-on in each household he resides in.

Traditionally the Chinese will welcome the Kitchen Deity back to Earth on the 4th day of the Xin Nian. Offering in the form of fruit and cakes will be display on the altar while praying.

I am of the opinion that it may not be true that the deity will report what goes on in our house to the Jade Emperor. Yet it is a good thing if it is so as it will act as a deterrent for family members to be on guard and do what is right so that no bad things will be reported to the Jade Emperor.

In real life, laws are introduced to keep human beings disciplined and deter crimes. We don't like to spend our lives in jail and be despised by others when we are released from prisons and therefore we will not do anything against the laws to put ourselves at risk of being arrested and sentenced to prison.

Xin Nian Kuai Le or Happy Chinese New Year

I would like to wish the Chinese all over the world a very Happy Chinese New Year or 'xin nian kuai le' today as it is the first day of Xin Nian, the New Year celebrated by the Chinese including me.

On this auspicious, we look forward to a very prosperous year to come. To keep all things unpleasant away, we are forbidden to sweep the floor because as is the belief of the Chinese, rubbish represents 'cai' or money  /property and to get rid of it on this year is to drive away wealth.

Children and adults alike are not supposed to say bad words to one another for the same reason - keeping things unpleasant.

Once again, 'xin nian kuai le' to all the Chinese around the world.

Today is Reunion Dinner Day for the Chinese

Today is the Chinese New Year Eve and as has been practised in the past until now, the family members from where they are will converge for a dinner called 'tuan yuan fan' or Reunion Dinner. The very purpose of this dinner is to get all members of the family together at least once a year. To me, this is a very good practice as we get to hear news from other members of the family and to get over the 'missing you' feeling since we can't meet on normal day. This is because we may not work in the same state.

Parents will give their children 'ya sui qian' in the form of 'angpow' or red packet to be placed under the pillow while sleeping. It is meant to keep the children safe and healthy for the coming year.

Xin Nian is around the corner

I was unable to get into the editor to do my posting for several times. I was lucky today for I managed to come here to do my first post of the year.

The Chinese New Year or Xin Nian is just 7 days away and everywhere at the market places you can see vendor selling Xin Nian decorations and Nian Gao or the the typical glutinous rice dumpling offered to the Kitchen Deity tomorrow the 24th day of the 12th moon according to the lunar calendar. Legend has it that the dumpling is made sweet so that He will only report the good things to the Jade Emperor of the household he resides in. He will return to the Earth on the 4th day of 1st month, that is the 4th day of Xin Nian to reside in every devotee's house.

Human beings are really funny. We only want to hear good things about us and detest the mention of anything back about us. In real life situation, words pleasing to the ear really make others happy and the very utterance of hurt-causing words will send streams of anger and sadness down one's throat. Hence, why not say only good things about others and forget about their bad things whatever they are.

For this Xin Nian, let us start the year by saying good things to brighten up life.

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.