இ Fly Me To The Moon - 中秋節 ZhōngQiūJié

Jade Rabbit ~ Image courtesy of Wikipedia

During this 8th lunar month our mind would be beaming with delight to celebrate the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn Festival and sharing fairytales of the goddess of moon, Chang' e 嫦娥 with her jade rabbit, paper lanterns etc. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 30Sept2012 where it is a full moon on the lunar 15th moon. Psychiatrist Glenn Wilson found that the full moon has been portrayed in folklore and legends for centuries as cause for celebration, particularly in the times before modern lighting. "There is good reason to believe that people's personalities do change around the time of the full moon, not because of any astronomical force, but because it creates the optimum lighting conditions for feeling carefree and mischievous," Wilson told the paper.

The video above says it all you that want to know about the history and celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival way back in ancient China with some interesting facts of how mooncake was cut and eaten in the imperial palace plus more stories of jade rabbit and grandpa rabbit.

Heard this sweet song umpteenth times by the late Teresa Teng but did not realise its musical coherence with the poem until this date. The lyric is based on an existing prose by a famous Chinese writer Su Shi (蘇軾 1063-1101 AD) better know as  Su Dongpo (蘇東坡). It was written during full moon in the annual Chinese Harvest Moon Holiday, when he was sharing drinks with friends, having already been sabotaged by his political rivals, fallen out of favor on his official post in Imperial China, and narrowly escaped a death sentence. For those who love poems, history or wanting to know the lyrics of this wonderful sweet song click the below button for more details. tQ to my scripteaser sifu SK for the html coaching. 

Shuǐ Diào Ge Tou By Su Shi (Su Dongpo) Will a moon so bright ever arise again? Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky. I don't know where the palace gate of heaven is, Or even the year in which tonight slips by. I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high. I shall get up and dance with my own shadow. From life endured among men how far a cry! Round the red pavilion Slanting through the lattices Onto every wakeful eye, Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why Insist in time of separation on filling the sky? Men know joy and sorrow, parting and reunion; The moon lacks lustre, brightly shines; is all, is less. Perfection was never easily come by. Though miles apart, could men but live for ever Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly! 水调歌头 (苏东坡) 明月几时有？把酒问青天。 不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年？ 我欲乘风归去， 又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。 起舞弄清影，何似在人间？ 转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。 不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？ 人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。 但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。 source;foreignercn.com

Chang'e 嫦娥 ~ Image courtesy of Wikipedia

The late Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, the first man who set foot on the moon on 20th July 1969 with this historic phrase "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" may have  missed the close encounter with Chang'e 嫦娥, wife of the legendary hero Hou Yi, a great archer who accomplished great achievements by shooting down nine extra suns. Chang'e 嫦娥 rose up to the sky immediately after drinking the elixir and lived on the moon ever since. However the State Council of China officially approved the launch of the lunar orbiting probe program in January 2004 and the leading engineering team named it "Chang'e Project".  At 18:05hrs October 24th, 2007, China's first self-developed lunar orbiting satellite "Chang'e One" blasted off successfully in Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Wishing All 中秋節快樂 Zhōng Qiū Jié Kuàilè Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

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இ WAKE

With less than only three days we would be looking forward to watch the assorted lanterns of all shapes and sizes to brighten up our streets after we bid farewell to the Hungry Ghost Month 鬼月 *Guǐ Yuè*. The most fearful 15th moon (full moon) of the 7th lunar month lunar where most Chinese believed the King of Hell opens the gates of hell allowing ghosts to visit the living world will be closed again on Sep 15, 2012.  When as a kid on the 15th moon (full moon) our old folks forbid us to roam the streets at night and we can only sing along with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising and the chorus goes like this... "Don't go out tonight, well it's bound to take your life, there's a bad moon on the rise'.

Western people have Halloween festival with similarity to the Chinese celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival having the same purpose to honor the deceased.  The Hungry Ghost festival originated from China since the Liang Dynasty in 502 AD, it was then evolved into the present ZhongYuan Festival 中元節 *zhōng yuán jié* .  Much have been said by bloggers HappySurfer & Panda Foong about this ghostly festival, you can read them HERE and HERE and HERE. When we talked about ghost, death is closely associated and goes hand in hand. Both words are a strictly NO-NO particularly in this ghost month.  

image courtesy of www.themeapicture.com

This ghostly month Bananaz has attended two Chinese funerals, one Christian and the other Taoist and was wondering is there any correlation between death and Hungry Ghost Month?. These two funerals were before 15th moon (full moon) and hearsay if any seriously sick or dying person who can pull through the 15th moon will not likely to die soon. How true? As usual in funerals we have this traditional 'Wake' ceremony used to be held in the house of the deceased but as the years go by modern memorial parlours have mushroomed through out the country and gaining popularity among the public. According to Wikipedia 'wake' has evolved into the word "watch," and it is in this sense that people have a "wake" for someone who recently died. While the modern usage of the verb "wake" is "become or stay alert" meaning, a "wake" for the dead harks back to the antiquated "watch" or "guard" sense. This is contrary to the urban legend that people at a wake are waiting in case the deceased should "wake up". My grandma (mom's mother) woke up couple of minutes later after my mom and relatives dressed her up in those longevity dresses for the dead when she was pronounced dead by doctor. She lived for more than a decade thereafter the incident. Cannot imagine the helter-skelter if she should 'wake up' after placing her corpse into the casket. It is customary for Chinese to offer donation in a form of cash literary known as 'white gold' 白金 *bái jīn* or some may prefer giving a wreath. Colours are used to differentiate bereavement or wedding celebration thus 紅白喜事 *hóng bái xǐ shì* weddings & funerals. The red 紅 *hóng* signifies wedding and white 白 *bái* refers to funerals. 

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இ HIATUS

Sorry fellow bloggers and dear readers Bananaz is going on hiatus as advised by ma lovely ophthalmologist after the double shot of RED eye pre-CNY has affected Bananaz right eye which posed a challenge to focus too long on the computer screen. Would be out of action for a while as not to stress too much but hopefully can steal some time blog hopping and littering ma peels. Not too sure whether the focusing caused the splitting headaches or the CNY heat. Will need to get a new set of spectacle lens once the red eye is fully recover to go full swing again.

In all honesty, I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky and I swear like the shadow that's by your side, I claim ma innocence that the RED eye was due to allergy and not caused by peeping at gorgeous girls and certainly not 眼紅*yǎn hóng* [eye* red] ie green* with envy that you guys reaped heap$ and ton$ of $$$ from gambling during CNY or receiving fat bonuses. [Aiyayo quite confusing here, who's is color blind?. For jealousy the Chinese uses '*Red' but in English its '*Green']. No wild thoughts pleaze...hehehe ~;).

Have a Great Dragon Year and Happy Chap Goh Meh!

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இ Enter the Dragon ~ 恭喜發財

http://www.glitteryourway.com!

We cannot Drag-on for too long gotta bid goodbye 兔tù-gether to the Rabbit and usher in the Dragon@Jan23, 2012. May the Year of the Dragon breathe fire and passion into everything you do. Wishing You Good Health, Great Wealth, Success, Happiness and in perfect Harmony with the Universe.

福 *fú* ~ meaning happiness | good fortune | good luck | a blessing | bliss. For those celebrating Chinese New Year this word is the most popular besides the dragon in almost every household or shops. You see it everywhere, on angpow packets, paperbags, hampers, lanterns, greeting cards whatnot. They are hanging or pasted on walls or at strategic location as advised by fengshui master. Some people do believe that by placing the word 福 *fú* upside down would bring them good luck as fortune some how will drop in. How true? *Gong*Xi*Fa*Cai*

Addendum: Thanks to Casendra for shedding some light on the inverted 福*fú* as *dào* is a homophone word for either 倒*dào*[invert] or 到*dào*[arrive]. Thus for fortune 福*fú* to arrive which is 福到 *fú dào* the inverted 福*fú* represents a combination of invert/arrive.

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இ Oohs and Aahs

Now Everyone Can Sing! You do not need to know any Chinese or lyrics at all. How about singing this song in your next karaoke session all you need is [..]
a--o,a--o e, a se di, a se do, a se da g3 di g3 do, a se di, a se da g3 do, a--[a yi ya yi yo,] a se di g3 [dai, da g3 dai, da g3 dai, da g3 da g3 di g3 dai, da g3 dai, da g3 do,][..] Not possible? A Yi Ya Yi Yo some are not completely convinced? Bananaz Beleaf It Or Not..Have a go..click on the video clip for the Oohs and Aahs. The lyrics doesn’t mean a thing only “嗯、哦、唉、哟……”. Basically this song tries to mimic by showing faces of a happy person, sad, anger and so on. She is sensational and delivers it superbly.



Imagine a song without lyrics could win her the Best Singing Award of European World Music Awards in 2009. It became a hit on December 1, 2010 during a Grammy Award presentation and remained as the Grammy's best music for three weeks and the song name is 忐忑 pinyin:*tǎntè* meaning "Disturbed or Uneasy". She is a Chinese folk music soprano singer who hails from Guizhou Province. Her name is Gong Linna 龚琳娜, born in Guiyang in 1975, who won the Best Female Singer at China Central Television National Young Singer TV Grand Prix in 2000. It was in 2010 where hundreds of thousands of netizens watched her video clip singing 忐忑*tǎntè* that took China by storm.

呀~屙

呀~哦er

牙線丁牙細東

牙細達街跌格洞

牙細D 牙細達街凍

呀~屙

呀~哦er

牙細丁 牙細東

牙細達街跌格洞

牙細D 牙細達街凍

呀呀呀呀呀呀

哎也唷 哎也唷

牙細跌格底 牙架底 牙架底

達架底架跌架底

達架底 達架董

底 達架底 達架底

達架底架跌架底

達架底 達架董

哎依也依唷

Some interesting 'discovery' while doing up this post with the two Chinese words. By itself 忐 and 忑 ma favorite companion the MDBG dictionary translated both as 'nervous' but when combined 忐忑 pinyin:*tǎntè* it means "Disturbed or Uneasy".

Noticed the word 忐*tǎn* where it comprises of 'Up上*shàng*' at the top and 'Heart心*xīn*' as the lower word.  Now look at 忑*tè* the 'Up' has been replaced with 'Down下*xià*' on top of 'Heart心*xīn*'. So the Ups and Downs inevitably perturbed the Heart resulting a 'disturbed or uneasy' person.

Cutest little 6 year old Chinese girl - on China's Got Talent with her 忐忑 pinyin:*tǎntè*. The pretty judge asked her why she chose a song without lyrics. Little girl replied saying there is except they are 亂七八糟 *luàn qī bā zāo* 'everything in disorder'. Sorry Bananaz not able to translate the full conversation but judging by the faces of laughter with tears you shall get the message, coz actions speak louder than words. Kindly standby your tissue paper after you ROTFL *roll on the floor laughing* when your heart is perturbed.

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