Monday, June 30, 2008

Bird Quest Family Hunt 2008


This is a last minute decision to joint the hunt. Another family hunt. Walk hunt is always tiring but of course there are also fun. The good thing about walk hunt is, no matter how tired you are, you stil have to go on until finish.
This hunt was organised by LION CLUB OF PETALING JAYA CITY and it was for the fund raising and charity for NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION,MALAYSIA.





Not much photo there to take as we keep on waiting for the peacock to open his tail.




We were given Nasi Lemak for our lunch. After lunch, there was bird show which was in our schedule. Nice show though....

Monday, June 9, 2008

Dragon Boat Festival - 8 June 2008 五月初五,端午节

Today is Dragon Boat Festival. This is an chinese tradition festival where we can see most chinese will prepare "Bah Chang" for praying.

I like this day since I was kid. I like it because I get to eat mom's delicious "Bah Chang" and the process was fun! Well, me and my brother have to do the preparation like boiling the bamboo leaves and wash it after the water cool down and wash the pot.

Today, I must thank my mom for insisting me to learn how to wrap 'Bah Chang', if it is not because of her, I would not know the tactic to wrap.

2 weeks ago, I asked my mother in law if she want to warp the 'Bah Chang'? I said I know how to wrap just not very good to cook the ingredient. So she said, go ahead to prepare what ever needed and she will help to cook the ingredient. I went on to buy the glutinous rice, the bamboo leave, chestnut and m-i-l went to market and buy pork.

Friday, we started to clean the bamboo leave by boiling it first and wash it with clean water.

Saturday, m-i-l start cutting the pork into smaller size marinate, slice the mushroom. Fragent fried the glutinous rice and boil the dried chestnut and me clean up the remaining on chestnut.

M-i-l has prepared all the ingredient, me and my sis in law, Shireen began to wrap after lunch. It took about an hour to finish wrapping the 'Bah Chang' with the help from Xin Hong and Amery.

 端午亦称端五,是我国最大的传统节日之一。“端”的意思和“初”相同,称“端五”也就如称“初五”;端五的“五”字又与“午”相通,按地支顺序推算,五月正是“午”月。又因午时为“阳辰”,所以端五也叫“端阳”。五月五日,月、日都是五,故称重五,也称重午。  此外,端午还有许多别称,如:夏节、浴兰节、女儿节,天中节、地腊、诗人节等等。端午节的别称之多,间接说明了端午节俗起源的歧出。事实也正是这样的。关于端午节的来源,时至今日至少有四、五种说法,诸如:纪念屈原说;吴越民族图腾祭说;起于三代夏至节说;恶月恶日驱避说,等等。
  迄今为止,影响最广的端午起源的观点是纪念屈原说。在民俗文化领域,我国民众把端午节的龙舟竞渡和吃粽子都与屈原联系起来。俗说屈原投江以后,当地人民伤其死,便驾舟奋力营救,因有竞渡风俗;又说人们常放食品到水中致祭屈原,但多为蛟龙所食,后因屈原的提示才用楝树叶包饭,外缠彩丝,做成后来的粽子样 
 
      
  一提到端午节,人们都会马上想到粽子。粽子又叫“角黍”、“筒粽”,前者是由于形状有棱角、内裹粘米而得名,后者顾名思义大概是用竹筒盛米煮成。端午节吃粽子,在魏晋时代已经很盛行。西晋周处《岳阳风土记》中记载:“俗以菰叶裹黍米,……煮之,合烂熟,于五月五日至夏至啖之,一名粽,一名黍。”可见这种食品是在每年端午和夏至两个节日里食用。
  粽子还是一种节日往来的礼品。到了唐宋时期,粽子已极为有名,市场上常有粽子卖。现在,我们过端午节仍然免不了要吃几只粽子。粽子有不少花样,有南北之别,东西之分。南方常用红枣、花生、咸肉等混在糯米中制成,也多见不杂别的食品,而去品味粽叶的清香的;北方多以枣、果脯等作为粽子的馅心。小小的粽子,似乎已经成了中国传统的象征,在人们心中占据着一定的位置。