I'm a full-time mummy

Oh yes, ghosts get hungry too... *eyes rolling*

Anyway, I'd just like to share some thoughts on the Hungry Ghost Festival which is celebrated by a lot of Chinese. According to Wikipedia,

"The Ghost Festival also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month (14th in southern China).

In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in Spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in Autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.

On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.

Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mache form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals (often vegetarian meals) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living.

Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qingming Festival from Ghost Festival because the latter includes paying respects to all deceased, including the same and younger generations, while the former only includes older generations. Other festivities may include, buying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities."

What I can remember was whenever the 7th lunar month approaches, the old folks will be telling us to come home early (if possible not to go out at night too), be careful if we're travelling at night and not to eat any roadside food. I also remembered accompanying my dad to clean up his parent's tombs (chopping off the weeds and bringing foods for offering) and we would also be burning up joss sticks and those joss papers.

Some Chinese who can afford it will actually buy those papier-mache items to burn for their deceased family members. Just look at the following pictures I got from the Google image search... I'm not kidding you, these are some of the things that got burned which is believed will be sent over to the deceased family members and ancestors..

Since I became a Christian about 5 years ago, I no longer celebrated or participated in this festival and have often wondered whether it is necessary to be burning all these stuff.

I mean, I absolutely get it if you want to pay respect to your ancestors or deceased family members but to the extent of burning all these stuff? Sigh.... I don't know what else to say...

Do you think it is necessary to have all this?

Sigh... as I was shampooing my hair this afternoon, I realised that the shampoo I bought kinda embarrassed me... Everytime I shampoo my hair, I am reminded of this embarrassing incident... This is how the story goes:

You see, I have been using this brand of shampoo for some time now and I realised it's not effective, I'm still having dandruff issues and hence decided to purchase another brand of shampoo during one of our grocery shopping trip at Tesco. So I was scouting around, comparing brands and prices and sizes, and finally decided on this:

(*Image taken from Google image search)

It has the anti dandruff feature which I am looking for, the price is reasonable and I like the small 90ml size as well... just in case it doesn't work at least I don't waste as much as getting the 700ml bottle. So I happily bought it and told hubby I've gotta finished up using the current shampoo (in order not to waste it) so that I can try out the new bottle of shampoo I just got!

And then as I was shampooing my hair with the current shampoo, I realised something...

Crap...

The current shampoo which I said it's not effective... which I'm trying to finish it up so I could try the new one...

is the same brand as the new one I just got...

Arghhhhhhhhhh!!

I know it's my fault for not even remembering the brand of the shampoo I'm currently using... sigh...

Now not only have I got the big bottle of shampoo to finish, I have another 90ml bottle of the same shampoo to use as well....

Grrrrrrrr.....

So what about you? Have you bought anything embarrassing before?

Singing, praying and dancing... Man swallowed by fish...

Coloring papers and cutting out shapes... Eating biscuits, buns and snacks...

These are the things we've been doing for the last 2 Sundays at our church's toddler's Sunday schools. Our church has different rooms and buildings for different ages of children. Any child younger than 18 months will be with their parents in a special room at the main hall - confined to a glass wall where we can see outside and hear through the speakers in the room. The next stage (which is where Ben will be) is for 18 to 36 months. Didn't take note of the other age group though.

Although Ben is 2 weeks shy from reaching 18 months old, we joined the 18-36months classes anyway just to get a feel on how the classes are conducted and what goes on in the classes. Below are snapshots and summaries of the 2 Sunday schools classes Ben attended so far:

1st Sunday school (15th August 2010)

I forgot to take the pictures earlier but in general what happened was, we were a few minutes late and when we entered the class, everyone was dancing and singing midway. The teacher then proceeded to tell the story of Jonah who was swallowed by the whale. They even made the whale's mouth using paper box. How creative!

I noticed all of the children there were accompanied by either one of their parents or the maid. I think we were the weird ones where both hubby and I were in the class with Ben.

So anyway, after the story telling ended, the teacher told everyone to wash their hands (there's a sink about 10 metres outside the class for hand washing and the parents will accompany their child to wash their hands) and get ready their water bottles.

Every child has a tissue paper placed in front of them and the teacher's assistant then went around each child and distribute a chocolate bun for their light snack.

Needless to say, my dear boy happily walloped the bun. I'm still trying to look for this bun as I can't find it at the supermarket we frequented.

Next, everyone got ready for the activity time! Each child was given a piece of paper with the picture of a pair of glasses pre-printed on it, and everyone was told to color in the glasses using the magic color pens. Ben happily scribbles away...

After that, hubby proceeded to cut and punched 2 holes at the ear piece of the glasses and I tied rubber bands on each side of the glasses.

Once a child finished their artwork, they will queue up and show the teacher their finished work. And the teacher in return will give the child a sticker as a reward!

Look at Ben checking out his Pooh bear sticker...

This is Ben's 1st artwork! I'm so proud I'm going to keep it for memories!

2nd Sunday school (22nd August 2010)

This time, we're early. Waited for a few minutes before the class started. Noticed there are 3 teachers now instead of 1 last week. The class started with everyone praying for a blessed day in the class, then moving on to dancing and singing. The teacher then proceeded to tell the story of Jonah who was swallowed by the whale (again...). This time, other than the whale's mouth which was used last week, they added in a hand puppet. I'm liking it already!

Here's Ben looking at another child who is fussing during the class. I just realised Ben's T-shirt matches the story telling for the day! Hahahahah...

So anyway, after the story telling ended, everyone went to wash their hands and got ready their water bottles. Every child has a tissue paper placed in front of them and the teacher's assistant then went around each child and this time, they distribute 2 long biscuits and 1 small cracker.

After the light snack, it's the activity time again! We were given 3 pages of pre-printed pictures related to Jonah in the story.

Look at Ben trying to grab the crayons! I've never exposed him to crayons before (we don't have any at home you see...) so it's understandable for him to be excited and fascinated with them!

However, Ben didn't seem to be interested in coloring today as it was his nap time actually and he was feeling pretty fussy and less energetic throughout the class. So, hubby ended up coloring most of the pictures! Although at one point, Ben was so excited and keep passing the crayons to this mummy on our right who can't reach the stack of crayons way in front of us. How helpful and sensitive of Ben!

Hubby busy coloring all the pictures while Ben looked on.

The funniest thing is when hubby finished all the coloring, Ben went: "YEAYYYY" with 2 arms raised up... as if he's the one who tirelessly completed the artwork! Cheeky boy! And this is Ben's 2nd artwork! Or should I say hubby's 1st artwork? Heheheheh...

I'm starting to get used to the idea of Ben attending the classes now. After the 1st class last week, I felt sad thinking "Oh boy, Ben is growing up so fast! He's attending Sunday classes now and in a blink of an eye he's going to kindergarten then school, then college, then work, then get married and so on...." Waaaaaaaaaa....

Of course, I have to slowly learn to let go and accept the fact that Ben is going to school one day and have his own circle of friends and no longer be sticking to me 24/7...

It's the circle of life and I hope when that day comes, Ben will know that his mummy and daddy will always be there watching over him no matter what happens.