Last day of Kew Ong Yah Celebrations in Butterworth tonight of 7th. October, 2019
Archive for the ‘Taoists’ Celebrations’ Tag
Last day of Kew Ong Yah Celebrations in Butterworth tonight of 7th. October, 2019 Leave a comment
Winter Solstice/ Tung Cheh/ Dongzhi Ceremony at Kew Leong Tong Lim Kongsi, Penang Leave a comment
Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the June solstice.
The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms (節氣). Dōngzhì (pīnyīn) or Tōji (rōmaji) (Chinese and Japanese: 冬至; Korean: 동지; Vietnamese: Đông chí; literally: “winter’s extreme”) is the 22nd solar term, and marks the winter solstice. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 270° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 285°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 270°. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around 21 December (22 December East Asia time) and ends around 5 January.
Along with equinoxes, solstices (traditional Chinese: 至點; simplified Chinese: 至日; literally: “extreme sun”) mark the middle of East Asian calendar seasons. Thus, in “冬至”, the Chinese character “至” means “extreme” and the term for the winter solstice directly signifies the summit of winter, as “midwinter” is used in English.
In China, Dongzhi was originally celebrated as an end-of-harvest festival. Today, it is observed with a family reunion over the long night, when pink and white tangyuan are eaten in sweet broth to symbolise family unity and prosperity.
The Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice Festival (Chinese: 冬至; pinyin: Dōngzhì; literally: “the extreme of Winter”) is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the Dongzhi solar term (winter solstice) on or around December 22 (according to East Asia time).[1] In 2015, the festival falls on Tuesday, December 22.
The origins of this festival can be traced back to the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos.[2] After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in. The philosophical significance of this is symbolized by the I Ching hexagram fù (復, “Returning”).
The beginning of the Nine Emperor Gods’ Festival in Penang 2013 Leave a comment
SP Lim
Off to photoshoot and work in Bukit Mertajam 1 comment
Today, being my usual working day I went off to Bukit Mertajam and Butterworth – an eventful day with shooting of Tai Soo Yah in BM Town with Bertrand Linet, Michael Chuan,and Ch’ng Shi P’ng. We had lunch at Goh Chan Lau, and saw a case of misadventure of a “customer” dying when patronizing a “lady of the night or rather day” and drove off to St Anne’s as I went to work at office nearby. After work I re-joined the photographers at St Anne’s and after shooting about one hour we are off to Tow Boh Keong Temple at Raja Uda arriving at 4.00 pm. At around 5.00 pm we drove to the Buddhist Temple at Sg Puyu to continue the photo marathon. I am extremely tired so after editing and uploading some juicy shots on facebook of the 4 non-sexy models, I am off to bed! Good night, folks.
SP Lim
Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you. — Marsha Norman
