Reconnecting With My Birth Story – The Meaningful Dragon

I thank my mom for making Mid-Autumn Festival an extra special day for me. A day she wasn’t worried about how heavily pregnant she was to go out and celebrate the wonderful festival with her loving husband and her little princess right inside her tummy. A day she wasn’t worried about the troubles that may cause her if I decided to see the world on that day. All she wanted was to show me her love by taking me on an adventure to enjoy the spirits of the festival.

The curiosity of seeing what she saw on that day has been haunting me for a long time, but I never take the time to go out and enjoy the spirits of it until this year.

I was trying to keep my expectation as low as possible, but the beautiful lights from Chinese wreath kept me thinking what would happen as I explored.

Drum rolling perked up an exciting ambiance while keeping me awake from dreaming too much. Performers all started to entertain us by holding festive lanterns one by one.

Fire Dragon Dance finally began after much anticipation. The smoke from the Dragon permeated the place while a thousand of people cheered the performance. Photographers ran up and down to capture the perfect moment. The place became much more chaotic than usual, but nothing could stop me from connecting with the Dragon. The Dragon that I saw as my mom – a powerful woman who lights up my life with laughter, love and kindness…whose Chinese horoscope happened to be a powerful Dragon as well…

The dance was short but memorable. People might forget it after some time, but the feelings of it kept growing on me.

The smell of the smoke, the image of the dragon and the noise of cheering never seemed to fade away until I saw chains of festive lights shining in the darkness. A moment reminded me of the magic of the Universe. There are billions of people in the world, but I was long destined to be the daughter of my loving parents.

Exploring the place with how proud I was to be their daughter made my adventure truly special. I didn’t know if it was coincidence. The place was somehow decorated with a traditional theme to make me feel as if I traveled back in time when I was still rolling inside my mom’s tummy. Neon signboards with some names that could only be seen back in the day and lanterns designed in a traditional way were presented in front of me all at once. Such a scene added a delighting note to my beautiful memories.

I thought the delighting scene already wrapped up my night beautifully, but a joyous moment came in suddenly when I saw lion dance lanterns. It was colorful and moving that seemed to celebrate my birth.

It was also a moment when I seemed to see my mom smiling and crying happily. Holding a fragile little me gently in her arms without forgetting to act as a powerful dragon to protect me from day 1 until now.

*Post note: You all know I already shared my birthday post here on WordPress. Mid-Autumn Festival is actually my lunar birthday. Although I rarely celebrate it, I think it would be amazing to dedicate this post to my parents especially my mom.

Happy Lantern Festival

Today is the 15th of Chinese New Year (CYN) and last day of celebrating CYN. This is the day we celebrate Lantern Festival starting the day with dragon and lion dancing. Later in the evening, many colourful lanterns will be lit as a part of celebration and riddles will also written on some of the lanterns traditionally.

Image courtesy: http://www.pptbackgroundstemplates.com/chinese-temple-lanterns-800×600.html

Few days ago, I found a shopping mall in Hong Kong actually took the traditional concept to spice up the mall by displaying electric lanterns with riddles on them. I immediately took some quick snaps for you all to enjoy. I think it would be fun if you could try solving the riddles. 😉

1. 

2. 

 3. 

Although it is Lantern Festival today, some consider this special day as Chinese Valentine’s Day because of the romantic vibes given by the beautiful lanterns.

Obviously, we can’t end the day without eating something sweet. We eat glutinous rice balls to symbolize having unity and harmony in family while enjoying the stunning full moon.

Happy Lantern Festival/ Chinese Valentine’s Day all my lovely friends! ❤

*Answers will be posted next week. Stay tuned for that 🙂

Happy Lunar New Year

 

Gung Hei Fat Choy! (It means “Best wishes and Congratulations! Have a prosperous and good year!”) 🙂 My health finally got better on the first day of Chinese New Year, yay! 😀 Thank you all for being extra sweet and nice to send me all the speedy recovery messages! You guys are definitely my homie and love muahzZz >3< Here I am wishing you a Happy Lunar New Year whether you are Chinese or not! May the bold Chinese New Year firecracker scare away the bad luck and welcome the good luck all through the year! 😛

When I was a kid, I didn’t really like celebrating Chinese New Year. I needed to visit some relatives I rarely see and they loved to pitch my chubby cheeks before giving me red pockets. 😦 However, it’s a completely different story after becoming an adult. I got to appreciate every single tradition we have during this festive and colorful festival. It’s a tradition to put beautiful flowers as a part of decorations at home during Chinese New Year. I love to make a guess on what the orchids look like each Chinese New Year before we receive it from one of the most famous gardener in Hong Kong. He is as generous as usual sending us a gigantic and super gorgeous orchids this year. It instantly delights my entire house once we places it in our living room. ❤ It is so uplifting to look at its vibrant colors and I hope it uplifts you all as well. 😉

After from looking at the beautiful orchids, we eat glutinous rice balls on the first day of Chinese New Year (meaning to have harmony and unity within our family). There are many different fillings we can choose, but I like black sesame and peanut butter flavours the most. I usually have one with black sesame fillings and two glutinous rice balls with peanut butter fillings. It seriously tastes delicious!!! Do you want to have some? 😛 😛 😛

Eating glutinous rice balls is just the beginning, we have various snacks for visitors to eat (showing you some here…obviously we do munch them also lol :P). I love eating prawn crackers made by my sister-in-law’s mother, but better eat in moderation (just don’t want have sore throat and gain so much weight…Actually, I don’t want to be fat like a ball and roll round lol 😀 ).

Speaking of Chinese New Year, how can I not mention what signify this festival the most – red pockets :D. Who doesn’t love them? Extra money goes straight to your pockets 😀

Whether you celebrate this festive or not, I hope you feel the festive spirits from my post. May peace and love fill your heart, beauty fill your world, and contentment and joy fill your days! 🙂

With love,

xoxoxo Khloe ❤

Sisterhood of The World Bloggers Award

Since my blog has been dusting for a while, here I am presenting Sisterhood of The World Bloggers Award I received from my lovely Garfield Hug to spice up my blog :P. My sincere thanks to her nominating me for this award. She is a loving, caring and humorous sister who cheers you up any day of a week. 🙂

Here are the questions that come with the award:

1. What day is your favourite day?

To me, definitely Saturday…Somehow it is a day that makes me think of a peaceful environment with a gorgeous weather 🙂

2. What time were you born?

I have no idea what time I was born exactly. All I know it was a day we celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival which we eat mooncakes and light lanterns 🙂 A funny story behind it…My mum and dad went out to celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival and all of the sudden she felt that It was the time when she was going to deliver. For some reason, they both had no idea to call an ambulance. They tried to take a taxi instead, but there was no way they could take a taxi since it was festival and all the taxis were already occupied. After trying hard on getting a taxi, they both eventually realized that they could call an ambulance. Thank God finally they called the ambulance! (Honestly, I wasn’t their first child and I think they should have the experience calling an ambulance. Well, I guess they were too nervous and that was why they forgot lol ) Not long after they arrived the hospital, there I was born to see this beautiful world hehe 😛

 

Photo source: http://www.desk7.net/wallpapers.aspx?typeid=8310

Photo source: http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/17Traditions9285.html

3. Did anyone tell you how attractive you look today?

haha no, been staying home all day long today…I don’t think my parents and grandma would tell me how attractive I look today since they see me every single day. I don’t mind if you tell me how attractive I look today lol 😀 (just kidding)

4. When was the last time you cleaned your desk?

This morning…felt like my desk deserved to be cleaned today 😉

5. What is your favourite ice-cream?

To be honest, I can’t pick one. I would say chocolate ice-cream and mint chocolate ice-cream are both my fav (nom nom) 😛

6. Have you ever met someone who looked just like someone else? What happened?

I don’t think I have…

7. Do you have a good ghost story to share? Share it now (please)!

Nope…I’m scared actually 😦

8. What do you really want to get this year?

My own art exhibition and an art studio where I can make large pieces of abstract art hehe 😀

9. Is there any bread left in the house?

No.

10. Do all your socks match and are they in your sock drawer like they belong?

Yes, they do 🙂 However, I do adore those who have guts to wear mismatch socks and not scared to show others when trying on new shoes in the store 😀

Thank you all for taking your time to read this post and I totally appreciate it! You all deserve this award and please feel free to post the award on your blog if you are interested. 🙂 I love you all ❤