hungry ghost festival

if you have been wondering why the local tv stations have been showing so many chinese horror/ghost movies recently, well, you must not be a chinese. ;P

it is the seventh month in the lunar chinese calendar and it is the month when hell's gate opens and ghosts and spirits are released for their 'annual' visit to our realm. we on this side of the world also takes the opportunity to pay our respect to them by having a 'hungry ghost festival' and ask for blessings at the same time.
many small towns will have this and different towns will have their 'climax' of the event on different days in the month. in tm, the last day which is also the 'climax' will be err...let me see the time...ok..today, 13 sept. there will be festive air in the area where ppl will display all their offerings in all grandeur and the burning of the paper effigy of hades. folks in town will come out with their families and admire edible stuff on display on rows of tables and there will also be performances on a stage nearby.

ok back to my story. so my family went and pay our respect today. mom, grandma, bro and yours truly. we went in the afternoon to avoid the morning crowd.

mom and grandma had started preparing all the offerings since yesterday. some of the foodstuff we made at home: agar-agar (sucks big time...hancur...lousy agar-agar. down the drain liao), chicken curry pau, butter cake, ang ku kiah (dunno what you call this in english), fried fish, fried trotters,and steamed fatt gou (??). bought: mooncakes, mochi, roast chicken and duck, instant noodles and fruits.

so here you can see our offerings to hades represented by the big paper effigy with a bloated tummy. there is also a 4-digit no (5688) next to the effigy...and guess what.....3 of the last digits came out today in magnum 4d. aish aish aish....if only i were greedier and placed a bet. i would be a few hundred ringgit richer. i remember mom telling me that 699 came out in the draw few days ago instead of 688. inside, i was telling myself in jest that 688 would come soon. wanna knock myself in the head now. not my luck.

and this is the part where we contribute to the air pollution index in the area. ;P
a 15-year-old told me that we chinese are made to pollute the air. he said that we burn all those joss sticks and prayer papers (silver and gold paper) the whole year round without any guilt.
well, anyone has any environmentally friendly way?

anyway, all of us came back covered with dust and ashes...from head to toe. i used to like burning those papers when i was a kid...it was fun seeing them burn. but now, i just can't stand the smoke and heat. so much for my filial piety.

anyway, we finished everything in 1 hour flat. and now, we have a lot to eat at home. my favourite is the mochi from kam lun tai which is sold once a year for mid-autumn festival. will try to get a pic tomorrow. the agar-agar should have topped the list, but not this round. mom suspected those agar-agar are not real stuff. so it wasted sugar and gas just cooking them yesterday. she has thrown the rest away now. i miss agar-agar!

ok...end of my report. time to get some sleep.