Truths On How Halloween Comes Around~

Ever wonder the origins of Halloween? Well, here it is.. after searching on the net.

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
Clip taken from < http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm >

So now you know~ ;)

One Month Ago punyer Bday *continue punyer ler

For the continuation of my Bday, it seems like 1 month ago. 'Paiseh paiseh' i did not post for quite some time. Eventually my housemate DID celebrate with me. Wel, they've even tricked me~! Hmmph~!!! They bought a mooncake, saying that they did not have any Bday cake & the mooncake will be my Bday cake. Aaaand, they've even sang the Bday song on the mooncake. Naughty them~ Hahahaha... As for my real Bday cake, it was Secret Recipe's Chocolate Moist Cheese Cake!!! My favourite!!!!
Thank You GUYS~!!!!!!!!
--->My housemates of 2004/05 =>> Soon Chee, Rachel, Kai Wen, Ru Shan, Christina, Pei Pei, Joanne, and Toh Hung (my roomie)<<= <---

The Eve of my B*RthDaY

My Birthday... ahhhHHHH... =) *grin grin*
Well, my birthday is actually yesterday and it is the BEST-EST Birthday i've ever celebrated!!!

The night before my birthday, it was, well, BORING. Nobody is at home, except 2 of my housemates but they were out at that moment. It was around 10pm and i was quite sad as all my frens balik kampung. Then AhPua came to my rescue!! He ask me to go out for burger with him (i think he's VERY BORED) but i said burger would do no good; i told him it is my Bday(he didn't know when is my Bday), and he was surprised. He suggested we go somewhere else than just burger. I managed to pull KimFei along before agreeing.

So we ended up in Sampan Bistro. I've always heard people talked about this place but i haven't been here before. An opening eye experience. AhPhua brought another fren with him, introduced as GuoZhong. I always have to think twice before calling out his name, just in case i accidently call him 'ZhongGuo'(China)! Hehehe... The first thing they did upon reaching Sampan is... taking photos with a Ferrari!! *Guys* Sigh... Reminds me of my dad who is also a car enthusiast~

The scenery in Sampan Bistro is.. well, very suitable for couples to 'pak tor' lah.. not really suitable for a bunch of frens like us. It has a scenic view of the sea, with no beach. You can say, at least there's the sound of the ocean crushing the curb/side stones of the bistro. We choosed a side-corner place, good for viewing the whole sea, which i still find Penang beach is still DA BEST~!!

Midnight came and the clock struck 12. The 2 guys put the Smapan Bistro's candle in front of me... and they started singing... --->>
~*~CU Lu SeEA JIT HUA HI~*~
CU Lu SeEA JIT HUA HI
CU MING ZHENG SeEA JIT HUA Hi Hi
CU Lu SeEA JIT HUA Hi....
~*~(Birthday Song - Hock Kian)~*~

%^<<*He rewrote this in my Friendster's testimonial*>>%^

Me and KimFei laugh & laugh because it was so funny.. and very creative of him! By the way, before he wanted to sing the 'song' he did ask us how do we say 'happy' in hokkien. too bad we do not know, so he use 'Cu' as 'happy' in mandarin. I made a wish and blew the so-called candle-in-the-oil, without cake. But i don't mind! Really! Because i had a great time!

And there was another funny thing happen with the flower-aunty. She tought we were double dating couples, cuz we have 2 girls & 2 guys, but in fact were just normal friends celebrating my Bday. She keep insisting the guys to buy her RM10 per rose for me & KimFei! Finally, with much talking & persuading, AhPhua & GuoZhong managed to get her to go away. *Glad Glad* Hahaha...

I had a really have a great time there and not to mention a great laugh until my tears came out.. Laughing & wiping my happy tears away.. and i started thinking, i have alot of wonderful friends around me. And one of them, well, i mean 3 of them are already sitting around me, are some of the examples. I started to see, FRIENDS.. friends are so mportant in my life.. and i wonder what would i do without them..
FRIENDS.... --->> HUGZ, HUGZ, HUGZ
MUUUACKS, MUUUACKS MUUUUACKSS
i LOVE u GUYS~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINAL NITE of Mid-Autumn Festival

The real day of the long-awaited Zhong Chiu Jie. Another boring day which we do not how to waste with. After dinner, we walked back to EP and we(my housemates^again^, and i) had an idea. Actually it was JiaWen's idea. She suggested that we spend the night watching the stars & moon while eating mooncakes and drinking tea. This gets us excited and we started to plan what we have so that it can be accomodated when we were to really going with the plan.

Luckily for us, we spotted an empty table after dinner & desserts (we had ice for desserts.. hehe...). Coincidently, KimFei and a few of her housemates are only beside the table. We sat down and told them about our plans and ask them to join us. ^The more, The merrier^
They agreed with our plans without much hesitations. So, JiaWen & Christina went up to our unit first to bathe, boil some water for tea, and bring down some extra cups for our 'guests'.

On the other hand, me & my roomate, volunteered to stay downstairs first because other than booking the place, we can entertain our 'guests' too. =) But it was getting drizzling, then more drizzles. U can say that we were very stubborn because we are still staying under the drizzle just to book the table.

After about 15 minutes, JiaWen & Christina FINALLY came down with alot of cute cups (which the cute cups are mostly mine~! ngek.. ngek.. ngek..), BOH tea, hot water flasks, sugar, small spoons, etc. Then it's my turn to go up & get some things which i forgot to tell them to. I came down with yesterday's candles, matches, a few more cups, and a mooncake. We just sat on the drizzled table while eating mooncake & kuaci (JiaWen bought that) while watching the moon. But the moon is always hiding itself behind the clouds. Finally, the Moon came out, and the drizzles stop.

Admiring the moon is not the only thing we did. We gotta have some fun! So i threw the kuaci's shells to KimFei & WinSee. I got them both surprise and they couldn't catch me bcause they do not have kuaci seeds~ =) YAHOO!!! We (the two tables) ran around here & there, throwing each other with kuaci seeds! I got the most people to chase me (because i'm the one who alwiz throw it at them), WinSee got the most people throw kuaci shells at, and the rest...?? They laugh ALOT. i mean, ALOT~!!!

Late at night when KinFei's housemates have gone, we decided to play with candles as we forget to play with KimFei's housemates. But we didn't even get to play it as the morning breeze at that morning was quite strong. Finally, we gave up , clear our stuff & went home ( i mean, to toilet first)hehehehe....

CHeerios~!!!

EVE of Mid-Autumn Festival

On the eve of this year's Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhong Chiu Jie), me, my housemates, and my housemate's friends suddenly plan to take lanterns and go around Bukit Beruang... just for the fun of it. One of my housemates got a few lanterns from the EP's (Emerald Park) warden. I do not know how did she manage to persuade the warden to lend us some, but she did it perfectly.

And off we went to the EP Garden to lit our lanterns. A whole big bunch of 12 person lit the lanterns, holding it on our hands, and we got some supports of "Hahahaha... Zhong Chiu Jie Kuai Le", "Xiao Jie, wo ye yao na dang long", etc., from the EP guys who are stayed facing outside; but we ignored them. Pathetic people. So, set with 12 person, 10 lanterns, 5 boxes of candles, 1 guy (bodyguard), finally we are ready on our way to toy the whole Bukit Beruang.

We started with Taman Bunga Raya and walked by the KUKTM's hostel, Pangsapuri Bunga Raya, previously MMU's off-campus's boy's hostel. Some of those naughty guys even sang a "Happy Birthday" to us on their balconies. Pathetic of them isn't it? Pathetic with a capital 'C'!

We didn't manage to go ROUND Bukit Beruang because one of my housemate was already complaining tired and sleepy. Although we're still in Taman Bunga Raya, we turned back with a heavy heart. Suddenly, a kancil car drives by and the kid inside embarassed us!!! He said, "Hahahaha... Je Yang Da Le Hai Ti Deng Long! Hahahaha..." OOOOoooo.. that grummy little kid!!! I was so annoyed with his comment. I was almost boiling!!! But i reminded myself, That is only a small kid. This small kid still doesn't know the meaning of this special Mid-Autumn Festival. To him, it might be only playing with the lanterns and nothing more.

Even though i do not know how to read Chinese, but i AM GLAD that my parents taught me well about Chinese cultures and i appreciate it.

Thank YOU, AhMi, AhPa!!!
~*~I LOVE U GUYS!!!~*~