Fri 13 Apr 12
23rd of the 3rd Lunar Month
1230H – 2100H
Mazu Festival Templing
Hainan Association at Beach Rd – Tian Hou Gong
Two
burning big candles and three big joss sticks (minute compared to the
old days and to those currently in Malaysia and Indonesia) outside the
Hainan Association belied what was happening inside. As I was taking
pictures of the outside, Doris beckoned me in to look at the scene. Wow,
it was like a kampong affair inside this big building (大厦 da sha as they
would say in Mandarin or Dai Ha in Hokkien). There were many big round
tables, laden with food. My eyes went to the Chicken .. but of course,
Hainanese are famous for their chicken rice in Singapore, although Pang
tells me the Wen Chang chicken in Hainan is times better. There were many old folks, enjoying the meal and chatting in Hainanese. As many would say, no offence, it was German to me. Never seen so many Hainanese in my life!
There
was a huge Hainanese puppet stage next to the tables. Ah, finally I was
able to see with my own eyes what Oikky Porky has been sharing with us. No
show yet and so I walked into the temple. This is a very interesting
complex. First there was the temple. And then, came the tall association
building, and it blocked the temple completely from the front. The
roofs of the temple could only be seen from the lane next to it. But
from the main entrance of the building, the temple looked like the end
of the long hall. There were three Taoist Priests, dressed in yellow,
offering petitions for the devotees to Mazu. Something I have yet to
see in the temples of other dialects, the devotees were able to get a
prayer set, with petitions written, and the Taoist Priest would read the
petition through the ritual that took about 4 minutes. With three
Taoist Priests, it was three at one go. There was quite a queue.
Apart from
Mazu, there was Shui Wei Niang Niang and the ubiquitous 108 Brothers.
And there was Tua Pek Kong too. Pang would be able to tell us more about
this temple, include the lion and the chicken, I hope. We decided to go for Mutton Soup lunch at the Chin Chin restaurant
around the corner along Purvis St. CC arrived just then. He was no
stranger to this temple and so, we left him to observe while we went to
“heal” our stomachs, as we would say in Hokkien. When we came back, we
learnt that CC had lunch with the Taoist Priests and probably gathered
more notes since his visit last year.
The
puppet show had started. Not really in the sense that it would do the 8
Immortal Blessings. The theme or story of the 8 Immortals going to the
Empress’s Birthday is a very famous Taoist Story that many temples would
re-enact the scene, often with songs … offering the respects and
blessings to the Deity, in this case, Mazu, during her birthday. In
Penang, at the Kunlun Kiong, there was the Hokkien troupe from Xiamen
(Amoy) performing using the Hokkien opera style. The HengHwa has theirs
using the string puppets (marionette). For the first time for me, I was
seeing the Hainanese opera performing this. I was wondering who were the
8 heads in the puppet stage. With Pang’s commentary, I learnt that they
were actually the 8 Immortals. Maybe Oikky Porky can tell me more about the
lady (Empress?) who came out to sing, and then, followed by a scholar or
official .. and then, the assistants who would then throw uncooked rice
(mi in Mandarin, bi in Hokkien .. interestingly, I suppose, in Asian,
there will be words for the rice in its uncooked form and cooked form.
Is there such a differentiation in English words?) with coins. Ah, the
old ladies were waiting for this moment!
Even
though the coins were only 1 cent coins (ah that’s rare these days),
they would rush for it and there were very few in each throw. There was
this resourceful lady (probably from years of experience) who opened her
umbrella and put it upside down to pick up the rice and coins. I
suppose the rest of the ladies would be disadvantaged, resorting to see
if any rolled onto the floor. Later another lady resorted to using her
long dress, which was more of the Vietnamese Aodai, to try to catch the
flying coins. Apparently, for every sponsor, you will see the name
written on a long pink slip pasted in front of the puppet stage, the
puppet troupe would announce the name of the sponsor, followed by the
performance and the throwing of the rice and coins. There were quite a
number of sponsors and so, it went on and on.
We
thought we had to go on to the next temple and so I missed the actual
Hainanese Puppet performance. Look at the eyes of the puppets. They
move, almost life-like!
Till the next part .. enjoy
(Re-post of report by Chinatownboy)
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