Sunday, August 22, 2010

Hungry Ghost Festival and the Chinese Forever Vibrant Economy

My youngest son waiting for me to take him to see the Kotai. He is all dressed up, donning his Michael Jackson hat while holding a microphone and his favourite MJ cds. He kept on insisting of going up the stage to sing MJ most popular song, Beat It! ha ha ha ha!

The Yue Lan (Hungry Ghost) committee in my area organized their 5th hungry ghost festival recently. I can see there number of participants growing tremendously from year to year. My kids would wait for me to reach home everyday to take them to see the Chinese Opera show and also Kotai (live concert). My daughter loves to help out in folding gold and silver paper money, while my youngest son took the opportunity to run around all over the festival wide areas. Everyday the hired cook would prepare tasty mixed ingredients porridge , fried bihun and nice tong sui (Dessert). I see this festival as a time for the people in my community to get together and work hand in hand to make it a success. It is time to remember the dead too; Buddhist nuns are hired to chant for the soul of the dead. The hungry ghost festival is a part of our colourful Chinese culture which I believe should be carried on to the next generation to come. The Chinese spent generously whenever there is such festival. Some of the money collected is donated to the Chinese School in my area. With the large amount of cash spent on food and prayer, no wonder the Chinese economy is always vibrant. You need money in the economical system in order to make it move healthily. The is why no matter where in the world the Chinese community settle down, you can see businesses booming in that area!

Oppps, kotai singer too sexy......censored! ha ha ha!, Actually the lights were too bright!

The Chinese Opera show starts after the Kotai singing finishes!

Lots of offering on the final day of prayers. Yummy roast pork! Had a feast after the final sent off!

Final sent off Tau Sui Yeh (God of Hades). An excavator is used to cover the road with sand (Selangor sand! ha ha ha) before all the paper prayers material are burnt. I was carrying the horse! LOL!

16 comments:

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

Haha I read there was an issue with the sexy kotai singers lately..lolz wonder this traditional opera can last forever as more and more younger people would not want to follow their parents to sing in the opera? Yeah it is fun watching the opera no doubt may not fully understand the deep Teow Chew. tQ

Love2cook Malaysia said...

Pete, brought some jongkong for U! Make sure U play jongkang jongkit after eating ya! hehehe :D

WOW, nice pics..enjoyed!

suituapui said...

Interesting. We don't get to see such things here - to the most, some burning of joss sticks and "money" by the roadside. No wayang, no kotai...no sexy singers! Sobs!!! LOL!!!

smallkucing said...

Interesting. Went once only when i was very young. Mom brought me there. After that never went anymore.

Gosh...Mini Pete..the future MJ :p

Yee Ling said...

Yea, when i was small i used to follow my parents to this chinese opera show. As we grow up, it seems we no longer go or even tends to forget about this festival..

penny aka jeroxie said...

Grandma used to bring me around to different kotai places... memories ;)

Caroline said...

i've never watch any chinese opera show yet. :(

MaryMoh said...

Love your son.....he's so adorable and cute....haha! You should video him and put on youtube and tell him the whole world is watching....better still :D

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

this bring back my childhood memory, this was a celebration I always waiting when I was a kid. Your son is so cute!

Cooking Gallery said...

The pictures all look so interesting and your son looks adorable with the huge hat!

xin said...

hey your kids not scared of the loud music and crowd? even im scared :P

wenn said...

i used to watch opera when I was young..

Jen Cheung said...

your son very very cute lah :) hehehe looks like a lot of fun eh???

have a good day!!
jen

Somewhere in Singapore said...

Last year Singapore kotai singer, some dress till very sexy, in the end, end up in police station...

mommy to chumsy said...

wow, grand celebration huh? i really don't understand why they had to engage those scantily dressed singer/dancers.

My Little Space said...

Frankly, I'm not fond of this kind of singing concert but sometimes they really do have some very good singers. The only thing I don't like about was those girls are wearing too little... like they never have enough money to pay for the extra cloth! If like that better they don't wear anything! (more people to watch mah!) hahaha.... Not a nice place for the children to go. Have a nice day.
Cheers, kristy