At last, i am finally free to start blogging about my whereabouts @ CNY.
Day 1:
I managed to avoid meat for half a day till 12 noon where i ate bak kwa. We needed to go out to feed dad's workplace cats. We went out at 12 plus. There are now 5 cats at dad's place - 2 siblings cats, 1 mother cat & her little kitten ( 1 brother cat and mummy are sterilized) and one blackie male.
After feeding them, dad took us to 'Tian Fu Gong' (Thian Hock Keng Temple) where we prayed to 'ma zhu'. Dad's work involved working at the sea so he need to pray to 'ma zhu' every year. Next, we went to the 'wang hai da bei gong' temple (Yueh Hai Ching Temple) near shenton way. It is actually a small temple near the sea. Nowaday, we can no longer see the sea from the temple. I just found a great site introducing our singapore temple: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/printthread.php?t=72094&pp=25
We then went to "River Hongbao" that is nearby. Afternoon view is so different from night so the crowds is not so big at that time. We ended our afternoon outing with a late lunch at Mac.
At night, dad, mum and I went to 'Cheng Huang Miao' to watch the taiwanese opera. This year performance is by a Taiwan, Tainan troope "Wei Shan Gei Zai Zi". The name of day 1 performance was called " Jin Yu Man tang" - a simple plot where a person whom was framed for murder finally had justice done when he met the emperor and saved him.
Taiwan opera is quite nice if u appreciate chinese culture. U do not really need to understand the singing like me..i only half understand what are they singing about but i understand what they are talking. The customs are nice, the singing fantastic, the performers excellent - i give every taiwanese opera a full 5*****.
Day2:
Today, we went out at around 12 plus after eating our 'ban nian' lunch where we had to eat the 'bai tu yu'. I am not sure what is the real name of this breed of fish called but this fish only do not taste fishy during the jan-feb session. We went to dad's place for cat feeding again. Next, we went to East Coast Park. Sister took me to see the cats. There was a group of 10 cats that are extremely tame. I loved one baby cat that is around 2 months old. I think i am crazy when i took most of the 10 cats to pray to the 'da bei gong' altar that someone set near their fishing area. I prayed for the safety of those cute cats.
At night, we went to watch opera again. The crowds came out in full force to watch the opera. Today performance is "The fight between chow gong and the peach girl". There is a small part of unrelated performance where the actors were hung at wires and fly around the stage. The performance was just as great as yesterday.
The story line was:
A mother went to a temple to pray for his son. The fortune teller(Chow) reowned for his accurate predication of one's death predicted that the woman's son will die within 3 days. The poor mother was very upset with this. It so happened that the woman's neighbour had a daughter. This daughter was called "Lin tao hua" (peach). She was raised by a high master that taught her magical skills. She begged her master to allow her to return home so lin went home.
Lin get to know about the woman's woe and taugh her to pray for his son where the woman needed to knee down holding an incense once she walked 3 steps. The woman managed to save her son's life. Chow was very unhappy that someone managed to broke his predication of death. Chow's little priest was prediceted to die by his master, chow. Lin taught that little priest to avoid death by visiting the 8 immorals whom extended his life to 800 years.
Chow got to know about Lin's presence after tricking his disciple to reveal how he get to avoid death. Chow forced his younger sister to disguise as a man to marry Lin. On the day of marriage, Chow tried every time to murder Lin but failed. Finally, Lin died when Chow's little priest accidentally let his master to carry the peach's leaves that is said to be the 'heart and spirit' of Lin.
It is a sad story. Mum was asking me why the good must die. I guess it happened every time, not all performance had happy ending. I loved the special effect of day 2 performance - the smoke, the flying, the fire and the beauitiful scene. The materials of the stage are made luminous material so everything give a beautiful glow when the light is switched off.
Day 3:
We went out at usual time. Mum needed to take blood to pray as blood will be going to Germany for 6 months. We went to Cheng haung temple and Guanying miao @ bugis. Guanying miao was full of people. No opera for today but mum and i planned to go on sat.
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