1st day of the Chinese New Year, according to the lunar calendar.
as
usual, stayed past midnite and den went online to rot for 2 hrs b4 i
succumbed to the sleepy bug. woke up at 9+ in the morning to start
‘making up’ for the day.
all in all, my bai nian
attire was not v glam, and only 3 pcs of stuff on me was worn for the
1st time: my shirt, my t-shirt inside & briefs!!! ha… managed to
conjure sth dat looked casual and yet not dat informal.
bai nian
procedures every year starts w a visit to 五台山 temple in clementi, opp
ginza. it used to b in front of my old hse in bm, but when the m’sia
ppl kicked up a big fuss dat land within 15m of the railway tracks
belonged to them in addition to the railway, the temple relocated along
w dozens of families who lived in the attap hses alongside the temple.
my dad was one of the 1st and loyal disciples of the Master (whom i called shi gong,
Grand Master)of the temple, given his super pious nature. cos of dis,
my family was a regular member of it. u see, during 大日子 when there wld
b an expected increase in the no of prayers, my family will b activated
to go down and help them pack the joss sticks and bundle them w the
joss paper and 2 red candles, which will b ’sold’ for $2 of 香油钱.
i
remembered being on gd very terms w the Master’s elder son (his bro
only came into the world when i was abt 6 yrs old) who was 3 yrs my
senior. we wld play and play in the temple. cos the temple was in v
unique terrains (it being along the slope from my blk down to the
railway tracks), we had fun time running up and down the slopes and
stairs.
there
was the big hall dat housed, among the thousands of idols, the massive
buddha statue. it was poised on a big stand (dunno wat it was supposed
to b called) and we will play catching in the hall, hiding behind the
stand and shuttling across the hall from one rm to the next. we wld
race across the courtyard dat hsed the water well towards the big
training grounds of the temple’s lion dance cum wushu team. the
training grounds was itself on the ground lower than the main grounds
of the temple, w two staircase leading from the gate. we wld climb,
hang and jump from the platform to the ground below. we wld act out
scenes from wushu films (dunno y we weren’t tot wushu back den…) and
play on the big trolley of the lion dance troupe.
there
was a rambutan orchard behind the temple and i went there only once. we
were not allowed to b alone there w/o the adults. aniwaes, the
rambutans from there weren’t nice as well. haha…
and
the temple will hold dinners for the elderly in the area during 大日子. b4
dat, my father wld bring me along as he went to the hses of the elderly
in blks 104, 105 & 106 to send them the invitation cards. y i bring
dis up leh? i remembered very clearly on a day dat one elderly fell
while crossing the ‘hill’ in front of my hse and cut his hand. he bled
very badly and dat was the 1st time i saw blood oozing out of somebody
in dat large amt. the ah pek was wailing and the helpers were scuttling
abt to tend to him. as to wat happened to dat ah pek in the end, i
dunno.
the
shifting of the temple was a big event, cos of the aforementioned big
statue. a crane was brot to spot amidst the endless rituals pertaining
to the shift. there were so many followers dat a few buses were
activated. while they shifted the buddha statue, i was enjoying the
air-con of the bus w the son of one of the bus-drivers. if i’m not
wrong, the bus drivers were followers of the temple too, rendering
their service at a discount bah…
the
temple had to shift when the new temple wasn’t complete, cos the
u-noe-who were forcing them hard to move. i guess the leaving of the
old spot which it occupied for decades was ominous, cos the
half-completed temple burned down once and a new statue had to b
imported from china (tho the old statue was still standing despite
being charred).
then
the Master passed away (some yrs b4 my dad did. juz mths b4 he passed
away, my dad was sayinh the Master was giving him the orders to join
him) and the funeral was super elaborate, cos he had a lot of
followers. i muz say i lost touch w the old fren i had in the temple
after it moved, cos well, we lived far apart. and my increasing
distaste for anything non-scientific made me want to dissociate myself
from them. esp after my dad passed away, we only visited the temple
twice a yr, during cny and guanyin’s b’day in the 9th lunar mth.
i
guess the passing of a glamorous era is inevitable for anything bah. as
yrs pass by, we see less and less ppl offering incense. dis yr, i dun
even see the loyal followers who spend their cny at the temple cooking
stuff for other visitors. my mum was complaining dat my dad’s greatest
worry was dat we wld stop visiting the temple after he passed on. i
guess, however, we will not b playing the active pt for stopping the
annual visits…
on nel on way to bai nian…
after
dat visit, it was off to my paternal grandma’s hse. dis yr, everybody
was present when we arrived. for athesmall hse of my grandma’s, it was
really diff to accomodate 40+ ppl. unfortunately, my grandma was long
into senility to identify any of her granchildren.
my
gramps was also another who moved often. from her ancient hse in silat
avenue (the 4-storey hdb) to the hdb-hopping along jln bm, each moving
was a family-wide event. we shifted the house thru sheer numbers. by
each of us carrying as much as we could, we could finish moving in a
day w/o employing external help (saves $$$).
typical… expression
in
the past, when my maternal grandma lived in depot rd, we wld visit her
as the 3rd and last stop. but she moved to tampines when her hse was
demolished. after dat, we visit her on the 2nd day of cny. after she
passed away, we went to her hse during cny when my aunt invites us, cos
she will hafta prepare the dinner specially for us (tho it was her
maids who did most of the job, haha…). rite now, the visit to her hse
is undecided.
poser…
therefore, after my grandma’s visit dis afternoon, we came home straight away.
ok…
some xtra stuff. 1st, it was how my cousin (the one who was same age as
me) grew fatter. haha… rem how i used to complain he was taller and
slimmer than me? now he was juz a taller version of me. and den, it was
amazing to see how much my younger cousins had grown into. we dun c
each other often, much less interact. but they were mostly one rd of
zodiac younger than us (there was a gap of a few yrs between the older
and younger batches, me being the last of the older batch). and one of
my cousins is pregnant. way to go! she was the 1st and only married one
and now she’s expecting. how impatient can she get?? and i heard dat
she got to noe her hubby when she was doing social work in nus…
hmmm… dun tell me she was a member of old csc??
hmmm…
okok…
dat’s all. cny is a time of repose, and thus, i shd b resting instead
of blogging. waha… too bad. aniwaes, Happy Chinese New Year!!
I never saved anything for the trip back, do you? at 11:29 PM
