Earthquake tremors in Penang, Malaysia

About 4.40pm local time today, I was at Psalm Agency new office on the first floor of the three storeys building together with some friends at Alma, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia when suddenly we felt the building floor shaking and the fans on the ceiling were shaking and my desktop monitor also trembling. It must be tremors felt here in Penang due to possibly an earthquake at nearby off the sea of Sumatra, Indonesia.  The tremors lasted about 2 minutes.

The last time I experienced the tremors was in 1990 when I was at KOMTAR, Penang working in a local bank. In the December 2004 tsunami, I was with my family and relatives from the USA travelling to Georgetown in Penang Island on ferry from Butterworth on the Peninsular Malaysia.  The sea across the Butterworth channel was choppy and it was very windy as we stood on the ferry admiring the view of the surrounding.

What a day to celebrate the installation of the Sultan of Kedah to be the14th King or The DYMM Yang DiPertuan Agong of Malaysia on April 11, 2012 who happened to create records for being the first King of Malaysia to be the Agong for the second time in Malaysian history where the Raja and Sultans from the nine Peninsular Malaysia states rotate among themselve to be the King of the Malaysian Federation.

Roadshow and Opera to say Thank You to the Deity at Kota Permai

If you have been in Malaysia over the last couple of weeks, you would probably be entertained by our local singers at the Ge-Tai(Mandarin) or in Hokkien " Ko-Tai or Roadshow had you ventured out at night to the local Chinese temples.  You would also had the opportunity to watch a traditional Chinese Opera show too.  Over here in Bukit Mertajam, the local Chinese community here speaks the local TeoChew dialect as compared to the majority of the local Chinese community in Penang Island who speaks Hokkien dialect.  Therefore, the opera shows over here are mostly the TeoChew Opera.

However, due to the Opera show and its traditional culture and apprenticeship which are not "seen" to be paying attractive income and the nomadic lifestyle(due to frequent travels around the country to perform at various temples) of the troupe members, comprising the actors, actresses, supporting casts, make-up artist, wardrobe and tailors, the musical team which sometimes doubled up as the stage crews in setting up the "theater and backdrops" which play the traditional musical instruments such as drums,gongs, trumpets and flutes and cymbals, these professional arts and noble jobs are hardly attracting the new and young generations.

They have to put in long hours of training to acquire the acting skills and singing and dancing. They have to teach themselves to paint their faces with colored powders and other cosmetics to depict the faces of heroes and heroines and villains too. They eat at and sleep on the temporary stage set up by the local committee of the temples.  It is hard to find a local opera troupe to perform because today's Chinese younger generation are leading a very different lifestyle in the advent of digital age, and have higher expectation of a quality lifestyle in the comfort of the beautiful five stars hotels and the lime lights of the more sophisticated modern art of acting and the glitters on the silver screen and to bash in the glamors of the Hollywood for being cast in the Megabucks Blockbuster Movies. They probably want to be glamorous like Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Sammo Hung  or Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li and etc. Guess what? Even today, the Opera troupes are imported from China to perform here in Malaysia.  At one time, the troupes from Thailand were quite regular here.  They probably find it hard to get new bloods into the industry.

Another dying culture is the Chinese puppet shows which are also performed to thank the deities.  Today, we have the animation using the computer digital technologies. I have seen in the past that some temples when they could not secure the puppet shows or the opera, they had hired the services of the cinema crews who show the old movies on a large white screen like a drive-through movie which is more economical and easy to set-up.  For the Opera show, there are usually two performances per day. One episode in the afternoon and one episode at night.  As for the Ge-Tai or Roadshow, it is only performed at night and usually from 8.00pm to 12.00 midnight with a mixtures of male and female singers who usually dressed sexily or in scantily outfits.  Male singers are also rare nowadays as the audience preferred to watch females performers.

Recently, the Opera show held at Kota Permai was to thank the deity "Datuk Kong" or the so called Malay Spirit Deity worshiped by the Chinese community especially those that practiced Taoism for the blessings which they belief were bestowed throughout the whole of last year. Some of the businessmen and residents would sponsor and donate huge sum of moneys to organize the event make burnt offerings.   The local shopping  center, Billion Supermarket sponsored one night performance of the Roadshow. At Kota Permai, the "Datuk Kong" is said to be "dwelling or residing" at the big rock along the main road of Jalan Kota Permai and it is the main deity housed at the temple built onto it.  See my earlier post on the temple here.  At this temple, pork offerings and non-kosher foods are not allowed to be offered to the "Datuk" deity as it is a Malay Spirit and it is considered a taboo.  Ill luck and bad fate will befall the persons who make such an offering blunder. Even the singer will respect the deity by singing at least one Malay song to entertain the deity.

Here is one Malay song titled Sha-Na-Na sang by Miss Chang Sin Yee.

 Anyway, the deity and or other deities will watch the opera or puppet show or Ge-Tai secured as offerings and thanksgivings by the local temple committee who are themselves nominated among the sponsors and donors annually or for a specific term.  Of course, the people and residents like me who like to see Roadshows will join the crowd just to watch the performances for free.  In the present days, there are plastic stools for sitting and canvas tents sheltering from the rain.  In the olden days where I grew up as a child, there were rows of wooden planks laid on stilts and tighten with bolts and nuts above grasses and muddy open spaces and arranged like rows of seats in a theater hall with no shelters except for the makeshift stage.

Those days, we could only watch and it remained in memory.  Today, we can shoot photograph and record video.  That is why you are now enjoying these video clips that I recorded with Sony handy camera.  Here at the Chinese temple roadshow, we cheer and clap for the singers as they sing and entertain us with the latest pop songs and dances. The visitors to the temples will usually close their hands together and kneeling or bowing down, and offer prayers with burning incenses (joss-sticks which can be plain and tiny or big with dragon and figurines and printed joss-papers in gold and silver colors accompanied by lighted candles and lamps to the deity or deities at the temples. Some who have been blessed with good-fortunes will make cash donations. They may even bring along food-stuffs such as boiled chicken, eggs, home cooked meals and dishes, fruits and cookies to offer to the deity or deities. After the prayer sessions, these food-stuffs can be taken back home and consume as it is belief to bring good luck and blessing. You can expect the joss-sticks or incenses with dragon figurines will be popular throughout this Chinese New Year as this is the Lunar year of the Water Dragon.

 

In contrast, at the Church, the worshipers play the musical instruments, sing praises and worship songs to God, dancing, clapping and raising hands in prayer postures, bowing or kneeling down and giving thanks unto the Lord and Jesus Christ. There are Malay and Murut versions of Songs of Praise and Worship.  The church congregations give tithes and offerings in cash and checks.  The modern and large churches even accept offerings through debit to credit card accounts or online transfers using the latest banking facilities.  These monies are used by the Church to support its administration, missions and to help the poor and needy. The Church have the Holy Communions where the disciples broke breads and eat and drink the cups of wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Love and Sacrifice for us.

Now you may like to ask, who is worshiping and who is singing? Who is thanking God and who is being entertained? Who benefited from the collection of monies and how it is being used? Anyway, mankind came empty handed into this mortal world and cannot take it with us when we leave this world. Let us be good Stewards and Custodians of what God has placed in our care and hands.

Here, enjoy the opera, roadshow, the pop songs and worship songs and may God Bless you and family and be with you always. Gong Xi Gong Xi.

New Year 2012 Go to New Chinese Primary School at Kota Permai, Bukit Mertajam -Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Beng Teik (Pusat)

Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Beng Teik (Pusat)

Main Entrance to the building

corridors between the two blocks

This is the new Chinese Primary School, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Beng Teik (Pusat) which is opening for new registration and intake of new students from Primary Year One to Year Six for the new Year 2012 session.  This Chinse primary school was originally located in Penang Island but it was relocated here due to the small and dwindling enrollment at its original location.  With the growing population in and around Bukit Mertajam, especially in Kota Permai, Saujana Permai, Permai Indah and the nearby residential housing estates, the arrival of this school is timely to cater to the children living in this place.  You can contact the telephone number and contact persons and headmaster stated on the notice board for more information.

As you can see, the Chinese primary school is built mainly from getting the funding from the Chinese community and donations and from sponsors such as the Tiger Beer charity concerts with donations from the public well wishers.  The Malaysian Government is only chipping in its token share of developing the Chinese and Tamil streams of education.  In fact,most of Malaysian Chinese schools are also having many students from the non-Chinese community as their parents belief that the education system is good for their future generations than the national schools where the language of teaching is in the national Malay language except for the subject of English.  Let us not go into the flip-flop policy making by our Education and Cabinet Ministers on the subject of teaching Mathematics and Science in English.  One thing I will always be proud of our fellow Malaysians of non-Chinese origins who have sent their children to Chinese Schools and their children are able to speak Mandarin or local dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese with their Chinese friends.  I salute you. You are worth two men' minds in this world. I myself have not studied in Chinese vernacular schools and is a "Buta Huruf"(Chinese Letters Blind). 

Although the Malaysian Chinese and Indian community have been contributing to the commerce and welfare of our beloved Negaraku (My Country), Malaysia, long before the British granted the Independence to Malaya and Sabah and Sarawak, the community cannot depend on the Malaysian Government to build the Chinese and Tamil schools.  The irony is that the Chinese community is contributing a very high percentage of taxes collected by the government but it only get chicken feed in return from the government to set up the Chinese schools. The Tamil schools were mostly built by the plantation owners who employed the estate workers to tend to the plantations in the past decades.

Even to get the approval to build a school have to go through so much bureaucracies and politicking.  The Chinese school is usually equipped with a cement basketball court which also double up as the assembly ground but seldom have football field.  Mind you, the Chinese school students and youths have contributed to the National Basketball team at the SEA Games and other international tournaments as the training ground for our national basketball players.  It is hard to find a good footballer from a Chinese or Tamil school in the likeness of our former national heroes "Towkay" YB Datuk Soh Chin Aun from Malacca or Striker James Wong from Sabah. or famous Spiderman Goalkeeper Arumugam .Most of today's Chinese and Tamil schools do not have enough land space for football field. The National schools which the Government fully financed will have a big football field and all other sports facilities.  In my old primary and secondary national schools back in Perlis, I am blessed to have the green-green cow-grass fields as large as two football fields to run and roam about during the physical exercise lessons. This was where we had former National players from Perlis, Bakri Ibni and Saidin Osman in the good old days when our "Harimau Malaya"(Malayan Tigers) was now the "Harimau Lagenda" (Legends).

Do the students from the Chinese or Tamil schools performed academically and excel in sports better than the national schools? Are the quality of the education systems in the various type of schools in Malaysia measured by the money poured into by the Government and staffing plus facilities? What is our Education Minister and the Ministry going to do to improve the overall education in Malaysia for the benefits of all Malaysians?  On one level, we are trying to promote ourselves as the the regional education hubs but we neglected and failed to promote a meritocracy and equal opportunities for all Malaysians.  We cannot blame the British for leaving a legacy for neglecting the poor as the nation has been ruled by our Malaysian forefathers and current government over 50 years. Even our Universities' ranking have dropped.  What is happening?

Must the Chinese and Indian communities have to beg for allocations of funding and licenses for the Chinese and Tamil Schools from the Malaysian governments each time there is a General Election coming?  Are we not One Malaysia for Malaysians? Is there a caste system in our Malaysian family. Or we are only one and united in spirit in sports only when we can shine under the glitter of glory being world champions? When will we see the day when the Government treats all Malaysians and Made-In-Malaysia products (including students and graduates from these schools) like its slogan One Malaysia. Or are we only interested to promote the cow farmings(NFC) to incur losses of millions of Ringgit and thereby wastage of Malaysian People's funds as highlighted by the Auditor-General reports. The latest no brain-er project to sell and export frozen Durian to the People of Republic of China. I leave it to you. 

There are primary and secondary Chinese schools in most major towns in Malaysia. Is there a Minister from the Chinese or Indian community or better still a visionary Malay Education Minister who dare to ask the PM and his cabinet to set up a Chinese or Indian University in Malaysia so that we can have the Chinese from the mainland China and Indians from India to study in Malaysia so that we can have a more balance trade with them and earn their currency exchange from the education industry and prevent our outflow of funds since many Malaysians have been going to their countries to study medicines and other courses in the past.  We can import their expertise of highly qualified academicians to teach our people and reduce the brain drain.  Who knows, we can learn to build rockets,space shuttle and stations from the Chinese to send our Angkasawan (Malaysian Astronaut) to the Moon and orbit the Earth and Mars instead of riding on a Russian rocket while we can learn from the Indians on computer programming and cow farming (see the you tube here contributed by PeteMcCormack2)?

Is this just my One Malaysia ideal dream and will remain a dream till the cow come home?
What is your say, PM  Y.A.B. DATO' SRI HJ. MOHD. NAJIB BIN TUN HAJI ABDUL RAZAK
PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF FINANCE and his deputy,  Y.A.B. TAN SRI DATO' HAJI MUHYIDDIN BIN MOHD. YASSIN
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF EDUCATION?

You may be interested to learn a little information from the link here to Matrade's statistics on our Malaysia's Trade Performance from January  to September 2011.

Here is a resource link to Center for International Development at Harvard University for your reading.

Another resources from Centre for Malaysia Chinese Studies

Notice for the public

Canteen

show classroom

E-learning facility at classroom

Lion Dance at Ground breaking ceremony

VVIPs including Dato Sri Dr Ng Yen Yen & Datuk Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong at the ground breaking ceremony

From Jln Kota Permai going  to Jln Song Ban Kheng

Side view from Kota Permai where the work in progress

The assembly hall on the 1st floor of the administration block

Wooden parquet floor for the stage

The assembly hall

Library area

Boys washroom

Girls washroom

A view from the school towards Kota Permai

Penang Roadshow - Hungry Ghost Festival

Almost everywhere in Georgetown, Penang and the suburbs including Bukit Mertajam on the mainland where there are Chinese Taoist Temples, these are the places you can drop by to catch a  Penang Roadshow concert where pretty and sexy lady singers wriggling and dancing while singing their favorite and popularly requested songs for the audience.  They have quite a wide range of repertoire where one moment they sing you a Mandarin song followed by an English song and then a Hokkien song and even a Malay song.  I remember once there was this Roadshow concert at nearby temple celebration, I heard the singer sang a Lady Gaga's famous song "Poker Face" and then went on to render a popular romantic Hindi song "Tum pah Se Ayers" and even dressed up as much like the famous singing idols.

Well this time the Roadshow is at nearby the Central Business District of Georgetown Penang and by the roadside along Church Street Ghat or "Gat Lebuh Gereja" which coincidentally is nearby Chartis Place building which is the Penang branch office of Chartis Malaysia Insurance Berhad, a leading General Insurance company.  Not far from that Penang Roadshow concert is QEII the hottest and happenings place named after the Queen Elizabeth II similar to the infamous ship at Penang.

The Roadshow is held annually  for the Hungry Ghosts "presumably the lost souls" inhabited there to appease them since heritage and the days of the British India where there were many traders and migrants from the Easts, especially from China provinces such as Canton or Guanzhou, Xiamen (where most of our ancestors of Penang Hokkiens people originated), Shanghai, Hainan Island and many other places and from the West, especially from Ceylon or present day Sri Langka, India, East Pakistan(Bangladesh), and West Pakistan (Pakistan of today) and the Arabs from the Middle Easts and the Persians and Turkish.  Of course, the Whites from the far far away Europe such as British, Portuguese, Dutch and Romans. So many of our forefathers and "great-great grandmothers" must have labored very hard to make Penang the Pearl of Orient and an important marketplace and port that it once belong to part of the Strait Settlements together with Malacca and Singapore(before Singapore became a Republic and independence from Malaysia on August 9, 1965) during the British Empire.  You will probably want to check out the history of Penang from the museum archives for this place which is also founded by Captain Francis Light.  I love to study the subject history at school during my primary and lower school days as I am fascinated by the heroic sacrifices and wars and the conquests by Warriors and Kings, and, bravery and romantic Queens from France (Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette). I belief the history books me and my schoolmates read long long ago have been updated with more current local famous names as it is part of nationalists pride and an attempt to give credits to the so-called Malaysians.  I am not arguing about who deserved to have their names on the streets and bridges but rather it is important to keep our heritage (Penang is now listed under UNESCO World Heritage Sites together with Malacca) and to help us residents to receive our snail mails and to give directions to those foreign and local tourists and locals as to how to get from one place to another in Penang for visiting famous tourist spots or savoring famous Penang Foods.

I believe the existing streets' original names should be retained while the new roads and avenues can be used to name after the famous and very important Malaysians instead of petty politicking by politicians.  There are so many of our roads and avenues which are now named after fruits, animals, flowers, trees and what not including alphanumeric such as PJ for Pauh Jaya and not the Selangor PJ for Petaling Jaya or even SS2(Secret Service?) or Starhill in KL (Kuala Lumpur the federal capital for Malaysia) which we who grown up through the past 50 years and generations knew the place as Bukit Bintang ( Bukit is Malay word for Hill while Bintang for Star).  So you want to be famous and have your name, image icon engraved on Bintang Walk with  five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks at Bukit Bintang, KL which is like the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame?

When we ordinary folks have a stone to mark your demise, it is just a grave stone in the cemetery with your name and your family linage inscribed on it. Your were just a set of beginning numbers (Date of Birth) and a dash - followed by another ending numbers (Date of Departure). Your name has no distinguished Order of the BE (OBE) or the Malaysian Titles of Honor conferred by the Royal Highness on it  and is not named with those that had theirs on streets nor Walk of Fame.  What legacy have you left for your family if you have not left any for the state or country or the world?

So let me get to the Bpoint here, the Hungry Ghost Festivals are for those souls with nameless stones, streets or walks, who labored and fought a good fight before they laid underground in green pastures or their ashes strewn into the seas.  So be entertained and may their souls rest in peace(R.I.P). Those living souls are generous and shared the worldly entertainments in the form of Chinese Operas, Puppets shows or Live Concerts like Penang Roadshows to make peace with them and also offered prayers.

God Bless You.

An evening stroll at Mengkuang Dam

You will never walk alone

Visitors thronging the park

Reflection

Fishing is prohibited

Some young visitors feeding fish with bread at the bank

A big round bark on one of the rubber trees

An unusual branch from the same tree

Picnic at the hill slope under the rubber trees

A scenic view from the bank to the main entrance

Hot spot for picture

Sky over Mengkuang Dam

Slope up to the rest area

R & R

A wall of Mengkuang Dam

Not to miss out the beautiful landscape and wonderful spot to relax, Bigfoothill took a quick stroll at the Mengkuang Dam near Bukit Mertajam, Penang.  It will be closed to the public from August 1, 2011 till July 31, 2016 for the dam expansion to cater to the demand for water in the State of Penang in the coming years due to the rising populations and consumption.

There are many visitors on the weekends and it was receiving exceptionally higher number of visitors today.  Many came with their family and friends.  Most of them brought their best digital cameras and equipments to capture the moments as the place are sentimental to many visitors.  It could be the place where many met and fell in love with their spouses, the place where they shoot their outdoor wedding pictures, the place for exercise and jogging with their whole family, young and old. 

The closure of the Mengkuang Dam and recreational park to public is unavoidable.  It is for the benefit of all Penangites to have the expansion to meet the water demand in the future.  In view of the construction activities and the movement of heavy vehicles within the dam and park, it is for the safety of the public that the place is restricted for this period.  Let us bear with the inconveniences for the next five years.  For our safety and also to protect our health from contamination of our drinking water store at the dam, let us hope the government and people can work together to monitor the dam and park throughout the construction period to ensure that we have a better place to continue to enjoy at the end of the project. 

There are many other recreational parks in Seberang Perai and Penang Island that the visitors can do their regular exercises and activities. We need a little effort to go to a new recreational park and adapt to it. Any kind of mass development projects are bound to have some kind of objections from the general public especially those that have been used to the place or the ease of doing their economic and social activities in the surrounding areas. 

For those coffee shops, nearby food stalls and fruits vendors, their livelihoods will definitely be affected most as some of their clients are mostly visitors to the Mengkuang Dam recreational parks beside the locals. Let us hope that they will find new clients from the workers involved in the construction project during this period.

There were many dissenting voices including the politicians when the previous government proposed the construction of the dam back in the 1980's.  Today, the present state government who were once the dissenting voices in the oppositions have to switch roles and work together with the Federal Government to implement the expansion program for the benefit of all Malaysians and visitors to our country.  We cannot promote Penang as World Heritage Sites if the tourists do not have clean and healthy water for drinking and washing.

In fact, this project have been overdue.  You can read the The Star article on this project two years ago.  Bukit Mertajam will definitely reap the benefits from this project as the Dam is situated in its vicinity. There was the centralized sewage project at Bukit Minyak that was going on for the past two years. The ongoing railway double tracking is causing its people a lot of inconvenience due to the many road detours and heavy traffic jams daily within town and residential estates as the people commute between their house, offices and schools.  As soon as these projects are completed, we will enjoy a smoother ride home with less congestion.  Meantime, the town have been dusty.

A number of Penangites from the island side have had the impressions that the mainland side of Penang are dusty and dirty since many years ago when bigfoothill got to mingle with them.  I hope this perception will change someday in the future. Dirty?  Any part of our country are dirty if we are all throwing and dumping rubbish everywhere we set foot on.  It is everyone's duty to keep our environment clean and make it a habit not to litter at our convenience. Look at our other recreational parks that have so much waste plastic bottles and other wastes that got stranded on our drains and rivers. I am sure we have seen people who throw rubbish out from their cars while driving on Malaysian roads.  Can't we keep it in our vehicle till we park next to the rubbish bin and dispose the rubbish?

It is also hope that the government and contractors will replace and replant the trees uprooted in the course of the implementation of the the mega projects, upon completion as rapidly as they chopped it down and bulldozed it when they started the projects. Many times, we lack the will power and enforcement to get the contractors to deliver what is promised under the plan including the compliance with the Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) reports to green the place after the project is completed. Measures should be put in place to hold back the retention fund until full satisfaction of a job well done.  May the local councils monitor this compliance and may the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) be more active in this area for the community instead of being political. Let us love Mengkuang Dam, Bukit Mertajam and our Mother Earth.

This is the day in Penang

Sunrise over Bukit Mertajam seen from Penang Island

Did you fancy watching sunrise in Penang?  Pull yourself up at 6.00am and go to the Eastern seaside area along the seafront near the Esplanade right through the ferry terminal, Weld Quay, Tun Dr Lim Cong Eu's Expressway up to the Bayan  Lepas Free Trade Zone coastal road. Pick your favorite spot and wait for the ray of lights to emerge between 6.30am to 7.00am.  Bring along your cameras, Iphone and whatever mobile phone with camera function and you will be in for the beautiful moments which you will probably want to capture and share with friends.

How many of us, especially those living in houses and apartments with the vantage views along eastern coastal areas in Penang, and those living on the Mainland and other places in Penang Island really wake up that early everyday to catch the glimpses of Nature.  There were some photographers with their equipments trotting onto the nearby fishing jetty to capture those moments on that day. They were the rare few people like Bigfoothill.

Time to rise early and jump up and down yeah!  This is the day the Lord has made. At least I have celebrated one day in my lifetime watching the sunrise in Penang with my kid.

Please enjoy this You Tube video of Hillsong Kids uploaded by kidsrealm

Credit goes to Biblos.com for the reference on Bible verses. Also, credits go to Hillsong Kids and kidsrealm for the uploaded video.

Long Hibernation and Weddings

Bigfoot went into hibernation mode at the hill.  The period of inactivity and low metabolism was to conserve energy due to scarcity of food available at certain time of the year.   Actually not.  Bigfoot was actively having plenty of food and feasting at Chinese Weddings, Malay Weddings, Church Wedding and royal weddings.  Really missed out the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Duchess Kate but somehow, I was glad to catch glimpses of the Royal Couple's visits to Canada on BBC channel recently.

Had some wonderful time clicking my Sony Alpha 380 DSLR camera and recording on Sony Handycam DCR-SR47 the brides and grooms and their families, relatives and friends during the customary rites and wedding ceremony and reception.

Tang Yuan is a dessert made of glutinous rice flour roll into rounded ball and boiled with sweet broth.  Some balls are dyed in different colours.  Some are stuffed in the center with nuts and other ingredients.  In Chinese culture, it is prepared and eaten once a year to welcome winter during the Dong Zhi or winter solstice.  By consuming it, one becomes a year older.  Today, this dessert is popular at many Chinese hawkers fair and restaurants, and can be eaten all year round.  On this wedding eve, the bride and bridegroom will offer prayers and bowls of Tang Yuan broth to the God of Heaven and are fed this Tang Yuan to signify growing up or Manhood and Womanhood.

Red paper cutting with Double Happiness and Dragon & Phoenix designs and Chinese Inscription, A Hundred Year Everlasting Good Couple

Romantic Bear Couple in Traditional Chinese Costumes.

The Journey to fetch the bride across Penang Bridge

The Wedding Car

The wedding entourage

The twin roses to pin on the Groom's suite by the Bride

The bride's veil is to cover the bride when she is presented to the Groom which in Chinese's Culture to signify her purity and a virgin bride. In today's fashion and contemporary, the veil becomes a piece ornamental dress and part of a head gear.

The desserts and beverages to welcome the groom's entourage

Traditionally, the Chinese couple will have their wedding bedroom beautifully decorated and some good elements are placed on the bed and in the room. Hey Mickey and Minnie, Bedtime.

A blessed couple having a Money tree sprouting in their toilet.  USD and Euro rolls. For richer and for poorer...till as long as we both shall live

Bear Couple lives happily ever after and bears children yeah!