Monday, March 19, 2007

August 7, 2006

August 7, 2006
Hello!
Today is Sunday and I've been trying to get over jet lag and Steven has been sick with a sinus infection or something which. Saturday we went walking and walking looking for places to live. We rode on the MRT train some so I can get to know how it works. Even when you ride the train you still have to walk a lot compared to the U.S. We found lots of condos but there was also something wrong with them. Either the location, distance from train or bus was too far, no shopping sites or the place itself. We haven't found the perfect place...maybe we won't. I want to be near the city center and Steven wants to be near his work which is North of city in Ang Mo Kio area. I didn't care for the area much. We are going to try and compromise and look for something inbetween. I really love the Orchard area. That's where our hotel is located now. Our friend Dawn Streich which most of you know her as Poon, called me this morning to say she will be here in a week but for only 3 days. Our hotel is across the street from where she will be staying. I hope we don't move into our condo before the 15th. Steven and I have had some good hawker food. Steven has lost 8 pounds since he's been here (I'm jeolous). Most of you know that Steven likes martini's. He ordered one from our hotel bar and it came out looking like a margarita! HA HA



The festival is widely observed by Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, home to many Taoists and Buddhists, who believe that the living are supposed to please the ghosts by offering them food and burning paper effigies of homes, maids, and other daily items for spirits to use in the afterlife.
For those who maintain these traditional beliefs, all sorts of activities may grind to a halt.
In modern but still superstitious Hong Kong, people have begun to wind down their usually frenzied nightlife.
"All unusual activities must stop. I have ordered my husband to go straight home after work," said Winnie To, an executive at a foreign company.
The peculiarity of the double seventh month occurs because the lunar calendar assigns an extra month every three years to balance the lunar and solar cycle. This year, the Ghost Month runs from July 25 to August 23, with the leap seventh month stretching from August 24 to September 21.
In Taiwan, property and car sales usually enter a lull period during the festival, prompting retailers to provide generous offers or discounts to try to boost sales by appealing to the younger generation which is less superstitious.
"When we were young, our parents used to tell us not to go to the beach during the "hungry ghosts" festival because they were afraid that we might be captured by ghosts in the water," said Kate Peng, 32, who owns a drinks stall in Taipei.
Few people in mainland China, especially in urban areas and among the younger generation, follow ghost month traditions. Many superstitions and traditional practices were stamped out during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, because the Communists frowned on them as relics of China's feudal past.
But it's not all gloom for Chinese during these two months.
For some Singapore gamblers, this is a rare opportunity to hunt for lucky numbers to play the "4-Digits" (4D) lottery.
"People will often use this chance to ask ghosts for lottery numbers," said Lee Inn Peng, a Taoist medium who has been practicing for 21 years. "These people are desperate, and will try anything. Sometimes they are at the graveyards with talismans, burning offerings asking for numbers."
In Singapore, where 75 percent of the population is ethnic Chinese, business associations often run street performances, known as "getai," to entertain the living and the dead.
Apart from inviting popular singers from overseas to perform, these "getai" shows also include auctions for auspicious items such as oranges, pineapples and charcoal -- which are associated with wealth in Chinese, and which are stacked on gold-tinted plates and elaborately wrapped in red ribbons.
"Some people will bid up to S$10,000 ($6,300) for these items because they believe it will bring them good luck," said Aaron Tan, who runs a company that organizes street performances.
Low said these items are usually packed with a slip of paper with several sets of four numbers, so that winners of the bid can use those numbers to bet in the 4D lottery.
"There are people who have struck lottery on these numbers and believe it is time to pay back the spirits who have helped them, so they don't mind paying a high price at the auctions," Low said.

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