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Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a great warrior who was very well respected and much feared. The warrior was known as Hou Yi, and his wife, Chang Er was one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom at that time. Those days, the moon was widely perceived as a representation of the feminine principle, or the yin. On the other hand, the masculine principle was symbolically represented by the sun, or the yang.

One day, legend has it that the Earth was surrounded by 10 suns at the same time. The Earth was too overwhelmed with heat and the appearance of the 10 suns had upset the yin and yang balance. Therefore, the Emperor ordered Hou Yi to save the Earth. Hou Yi, a renowned archer himself, then stepped up to the occasion and shot down 9 suns. He became an instant hero after that. Little did he know, the Goddess of Western Heaven had witnessed his heroic feat.

She rewarded Hou Yi with a special pill that would make him immortal. Hou Yi was extremely happy. However, there was a condition that came with the pill - Hou Yi must meditate and fast for a year. He must take the pill with an absolute pure heart, otherwise he would not become immortal. Upon agreeing to the conditions, Hou Yi proceeded with his heart-purification mission, without the knowledge of Chang Er.

(Image taken from A Doodle a Day, via Google Images)

However, Chang Er accidentally found the pill and out of curiosity, she swallowed it! Hou Yi was very angry about it, and Chang Er was consequently sent to the moon as a punishment. That is why we see images of a woman on our mooncakes, today! Mooncakes are a must during the Moon Festival, which is meant to commemorate this legend about Chang Er. Actually, my version of this legend was derived from a number of sources, including a speech delivered by fellow Toastmaster recently.

So have you eaten any mooncakes yet? I prefer yolkless ones ;D One of the first mooncakes I had this year was the much-hyped, durian-flavored one from Tai Thong. It tasted surprisingly good! I also love the ‘cold’ mooncakes (to be kept refrigerated), or 冰皮月餅 (bing pi yue bing, literally translated to be ‘ice skin mooncake’ in English). They’re my favorite! This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival falls exactly on the 25 September (coming Tuesday), but celebrations usually begin about a month early. Happy Mid-Autumn, everyone!

Narrowband’s trusted references:
1. The Moon Festival - About.com
2. The Legendary Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival
3. Mooncake Legend
4. Moon Festival Overview
5. The Legend of Eating Mooncakes

Photo update@0015hrs, 29 Sept 2007:

Super yummy Snow-Skin Lotus mooncakes from Tai Thong. By the way, anybody can tell me what to do with mooncake boxes? Lol… I don’t feel like throwing them away - what a waste!

I think the crowd that flocked to Putrajaya for the fireworks competition this week had doubled. Maybe even tripled. Seriously, the jam actually started from DHL in Puchong. Shortly after the USJ toll, I was shocked to see cars coming to a standstill on the way up the ram towards LDP. Needless to say, it took much, much longer than I thought to reach even the second toll.

I decided not to go into Putrajaya anymore as we were definitely going to be late. Luckily Xinyi didn’t mind. We ended up in Cyberjaya, which wasn’t that bad considering we could have missed the whole thing altogether. Actually it was also an enjoyable experience in the sense that you actually watch the show, rather than fiddling with camera settings trying to capture perfect shots. I didn’t bother to set up the tripod as the Italian team had already started their performance. Everyone actually abandoned their cars in the jam (refer to pic), which was pretty cool. I had never parked my car in the middle of the road like that before, lol.

Thankfully the journey back wasn’t as bad as last week’s. It’s strange, I don’t know why. I got home in time for a good night’s sleep, as I gotta get up early this morning for the SJ10K run. I don’t know how well I did, but I think I missed the 60 minutes qualifying time, judging from the time one of the boys told me. In any case, it was a good workout - beats running on the treadmill anytime. Oh btw, I must say that this year’s T-shirt design is bad.

The Hungry Ghost Festival

I’m sure by now you have seen many people burning jossticks and other offerings by the roadside. It is the time of the year (in the lunar calendar, at least) where the Buddhists believe that the gates of hell are opened and the spirits of the dead will roam the streets. Offering jossticks, prayers, food and hell notes is a way to pay our respect for the dead. My family did just that outside our house today, where we paid respect facing all four directions at the crossroad.

From online.sh.cn via Google Images

By the by, speaking of ghosts, have you watched Jay Chou’s latest movie, Secret (不能说的秘密)? Well it’s not exactly about ghosts, more like a case of intertwined dimensions of time. Ah, whatever it is, it surely was a creative work. I’m not gonna go on telling you about the story, because it’s supposed to be… well, a secret. Go watch it and tell me if it reminds you of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. Whoops, was that a spoiler? Actually, The Sixth Sense was about ghosts but Secret is not. I can’t say I liked the acting in Secret, but the storyline really impressed me. And the actresses, too - they’re worth a mention. So pretty can!!

Happy Monday, everyone!

We went to a Thai Buddhist Temple along Jalan Tun Razak this morning - our first time at that temple.

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One of the biggest mistakes a blogger could ever make is forgetting to take a camera along when he goes out. Today I had to put my trusty Sony Ericsson handphone to good use. Pardon the excellent photo quality, just this time, ok?

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Or rather, temple visits gallery. It’s the second day of the 2007 Lunar New Year today. Fortunately, it is not raining. I mean what is CNY when the sky’s cloudy? We had a reunion dinner on CNY eve. Leading the 9-course meal was none other than the obligatory dish - the yee sang.

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It’s going to be one of those times when you don’t have any problems finding a parking in Taipan at any time of the day. It’s also one of those times when I dread to think about the questions my relatives will ask me during our reunion dinner.

Those are the cookies in my house. Oh man there’ll be lots of work to do after the holidays (even during!). Meanwhile, I guess blogging will slow down a bit. Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

We exchanged gifts in the office last week. And I actually took home something about 10 (that’s t-e-n) times bigger than what I had brought there. We’ll get to that later. About a coupla hours ago, I was at a special Christmas-themed Toastmasters meeting and yes - you’ve guessed it - we exchanged gifts too. [Note: There are about 15 photos. But given the current internet speed, I’ve made this post ‘narrowband-friendly‘ (pun intended)].

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