Happy Cap Go Meh!

 Happy Cap Go Meh!

Today is the day where my hometown celebrates Cap Go Meh! It is a day celebrated on the 15th day of the 1st Lunar Month (hence the name Cap Go = 15th), to celebrate the end of Chinese New Year celebration. Since CNY is celebrated in a span of 15 days.

However, it's been a tradition that the festival is celebrated on the 21st in my hometown. So the folks call it Ji It Meh instead. Nevertheless it was a pretty festive day because the deities' sedans (we call it joli here) got paraded out on the streets around the temple this year as they didn't do it last year. Can you believe it's been 13 (or 14) years since I last participated in the procession? Time flies indeed.

The prayers began at 1 PM. It was raining super heavily then, and the rain got even heavier and gustier as time goes by... So I was a bit worried that the procession might be cancelled. At 4 PM-ish the rain didn't stop but I decided to head over to the temple still. To my surprise, it wasn't raining in the temple area. Whereas in my house it was raining pretty heavily. I was walking on the road following the procession when I met someone I know who was carrying the sedan for one of the deities in the temple called Kongco Han Tan Kong, who is one of the main deities in the temple.

 Taken while I was carrying the sedan.

One of the men who was carrying the sedan asked me to take his turn carrying the sedan and of course, I gladly take the chance! I've been wanting to carry the sedan and join the procession since young. So well today my childhood dream came true! :D Anyway the sedan is very heavy. Like they said, it really feels like someone is sitting inside it. So we take turns carrying it. I was carrying it for a few distance and another man took my place, and so on and forth. Anyway we don't only carry it but we also sway it. I think it's a significance of good fortune and luck.

 End of the procession

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and seeing the sights. I left home first because I had a delivery to settle. After that I returned back to the temple for the closing ceremony. So one by one the sedans enter the temple. Once they have been placed there, the idols of the deities are being carried back to the altars one by one. And then some prayers were carried out, and the event came to a close! People were being offered food and cakes, I just love the atmosphere inside. It was really a happy and festive one. I'd love to return next year. And definitely at an earlier time.

 The temple official taking the flowers out
PS: I've never seen the temple so smoky before

Today was definitely an eye-opener for me because... Like I said above it's been close to 14 years since I participated in one. 14 years ago I was a small boy who is shorter than the sedans. I can't even carry them! Hah. So I just stood on the side and watch them go by. Now I'm a young man, and I am pretty glad to be given the opportunity to carry the sedan. I supposed I'm kinda sad that I missed out a whole lot in these 14 years. But then again, what matters now is that I'm back here, and I would love to participate in this every year. To share the happiness and festivity with the people of my hometown.

 People taking turns carrying

Also, one of the things I love about today is the fact that many young people are taking part in this procession. And I feel it is important that we, the younger generation, should continue these traditions and festivities for many more years to come. These festivities are one of the most important things that bind the community together, that bind a city together. I'm not just talking about the Chinese/Buddhist communities here, but everyone. Because today, people regardless of race and religion came together around the temple to share the festivities. 

Alright, it's been a beautiful day. Looking forward to next year's Cap Go Meh already.

Ancestry

 Afterlife

So today was the 50th death anniversary of my great grandmother. Obviously I didn't get a chance to meet her in real life, I was probably still in my previous life. Or maybe I did meet her once in my previous life or something haha. Anyway it's been a family tradition to do prayers during the death anniversary of our relatives. Ever since my great grandparents set up the altar table for our ancestors. And my grandpa has been doing it for my great grandparents too. Now it is my father's generation (AKA my aunts and uncle) and soon, it will by my generation's turn.

But to think that we've been doing this for 50 years, for my great grandmother's death anniversary, made me truly proud of our tradition. And like my father told me, till how long more can we uphold this tradition? I suppose my generation will still continue it, but will the generation after mine do it? It's a big question mark, because somehow as life gets more modern, tradition seems to be forgotten and left aside, because it is deemed very "troublesome" and just inconvenient. And thankfully I don't.

I suppose I'm one of the luckiest people on earth who actually still has a painting of my great great grandparents! Yes you see it right, great great! They are from China, and they died there too I suppose. Because my great grandparents were the first people in the family who came over to Indonesia back many many years ago. And then my grandfather was born.

And I'm always curious. I always want to know the kind of life that my great great grandparents had. If I calculate correctly, they should be living in the 1800s in China. And it should be still in the ruling period of the Qing dynasty! Wow does this mean they're imperial officers or something haha. And not just my great great grandparents, but my ancestors above that! Where were they? What were they doing? I'm always curious. If I can time travel, I will definitely go back and check out my ancestors.

It's always amazing and scary to think about time. About our ancestors, the people who in a long and unique way, made who we are today. And I always ask myself questions too, like what if my great grandparents decided not to come to Indonesia. Well I wouldn't be here, my dad wouldn't be here. So yes, time, in its mysteriously beautiful ways, shaped our lives by the events that happened throughout the course of our lives. And it's pretty beautiful, to think of all these to be honest.

Yup, so... Take time to think about your ancestors. It's quite amazing to think of all these.

Sunshine

It all takes one day of sunshine to make people sick here. Well we believe that if the weather changes really quickly, say it rains today and it becomes hot tomorrow, and it rains again the day after tomorrow, it's a perfect recipe to fall sick. So it was pretty sunny on Monday after a month of rain. And on Tuesday it was just cloudy (and not raining) and today it was drizzling. My dad and I were feeling kinda feverish just now. Perhaps this is the reason why, or maybe we just have an infection.

I spent three years of my life studying biomedical science and one of the "goals" I had before entering this course was to break the beliefs we have here that involve sickness. Like the term "masuk angin", which literally translates to enter wind, or wind entering the stomach, which is a condition when you feel bloated, nauseatic and have headaches etc, usually after you spent some time outside in the wind. I want to know what causes all of these, and I haven't! Should have made it my FYP.

And I'll name it "The Investigation of "Masuk Angin" Syndrome"

I successfully did a study though, to how garlic can cure pimples and boils. Cause here that's what we do, use garlic on pimples and boils to cure it. And we (Kai Xuan, Candy and I) did prove it back in year one in our microbiology group project! So cool. This is a reason why I love science heh.

There are a lot of taboos and beliefs we have here which I'm always interested to investigate. Like how we shouldn't take a shower after exercising (which is what I always do when I was in Singapore), or how we should avoid aircon and winds when we are sweating (another thing I always do). And one of the most unfathomable one is that eating too much eggs will give you boils. I actually did a research on this and came with nothing. I even found a site where it suggests applying egg yolk on boils as remedy.

I often realise how a lot of things are much of a contradiction here and when I was in Singapore.The weird thing is that when I do all of these "taboos" in Singapore, I don't necessarily feel that they are taboos just because I'm not back at home. But when I am back here, I always take these precautions seriously. Because somehow being back at home seems to increase the chance of these situations to really happen by 200%. Perhaps it's the home-cebo effect, I would call it.

Ah well, there are lots of mysteries we have in life.

The last?

Sometimes I feel sad to realise that I might be the last few (or even, the last) generation to enjoy great traditional food. Or even, maybe I am the last generation who likes these traditional food. My mum cooked preserved vegetable with pork tonight and it is one of my favourite food. Eating a bowl of rice with it using chopsticks is like one of the best things in life.

Although I often wonder, will such food still exist in the future? How many people in my generation actually knows how to cook it? And how many people in my generation actually enjoy eating these food? Come to think of it, we're so-called the "buyer generation". Most of us buy things instead of make them. And this is especially true to food. How many of us actually still bother to cook dinner instead of just buying some take-away? How many of us enjoy cooking traditional food?

Perhaps it's time for me to jot down all these recipes in a book so that I can cook them in the future. And when people of my generation miss these food next time, I can help them relive their nostalgia. Which brings me to my next point, where I am interested to open a restaurant in the hometown where we sell traditional food! I think the concept will work because as we go along the way, we'll miss these food more and more. But then again I think to myself, how many of us like such food?

As an Asian, and Indonesian, food is really something important in life. Food is not just about getting yourself fed and making you feel full. I think being Asian, food is something that holds our identity and culture together. It will be a nightmare for me if in the future, we eat nothing but normal food with no sense and touch of traditionalism there. Maybe in the future all we ever cook is stir-fry dishes, deep-fried meats and more processed food. Gone were the days of preserved vegetables, stewed meat in spices and food wrapped in banana leaves and so on. How sad.

Perhaps it's time for us to give more appreciation to the food that our parents/grandparents/other family members cook. Because these are the people that grow up, still expected to uphold traditions and the culture. I'm not saying that our generation is not expected to, but because of the changing and progressing of time, we are not -that- interested to do these "traditional" things. Well let's bug our mums, aunties and grandmas to ask them to teach how to make all these great food!