Today is the 5th of 6th lunar month. It is chinese “Bajang” Festival *hooray*

actuall i should get up early in the morning and help everyone in the house do the “bajang” things but well our home are quite lazy (haha kidding mom ;> ) and no one can make it delicious… well no one ever do it since i’ve borned… so i dont really know if anyone in my family can do it deliciously ^ ^;; i really wonder if my late grandmother can do it @_@

here’s how it looks like, mine even have taro + chestnut >w< it was really yummy <3

anyway my aunt grabbed some (or bought some…whatever) “bajang” from her boss’ home since it’s the place where we can get delicious bajang. bajang is a traditional food, made from stinky rice + mushroom + beans + some meat e.g. pork + sth else depends on your recipe. and then you use the bamboo’s leave to wrap those up in a unique shape (what does this shape exactly called?) it’s not a pyramid na. yeah then you steam up these bajang and .. tada .. eat it while it’s hot <3

it usually be like that but this year my aunts (i’ve 2 aunts) decided to set up tables and chairs and light the candle up for our ancestors; surely they’re dead and wont physically come to sit there ;P but it’s chinese way to recall our late beloved ones and remind ourselves who we are and where we came from. Thus some other foods including fruits and Ocha (tea) are there too to set up food for them.

that’s why there’s apple, roseapple and cherry here

we also have to burn some of their necessities to them. this is the way chinese people believe. burn whatever you want to send to them, i.e. to the hell or the heaven or wherever they live, and once when there’re gone our ancestors will get those stuffs. i think the logic is that once the things gone these things must appear SOMEWHERE else which could be the place where the ancestors live. if it’s true FedEx should learn about this technique somehow HAHA. whether i believe it or not, chinese keeps this believe and i have the right to continue burning things to my ancestors 8D

burning these things is not just burn any papers or ANYTHING. it’s an art too. you’ve to wrap and fold these papers into meaningful shape(s). we usually fold into a “gold bar” but there’s much more shapes you can learn. Below is one example

this is how a paper looks like. there’s many version for many purposes. this one acts like a passport to the hell (want some? LOL)

fold up

notice my fingers and thumb, here’s the hard part started

bring the two sides of the triangle together, wrap it around your finger. notice my finger at the bottom of the cone-like shape, there is a hole. i bet someone would ask how the heck it can be like this * *~ but folding this one require you to practice. i have to do these things since my less-than-10-years so.. you know the way to any success is practice anyway ^ ^;;

bend the finger and the hole will gone, this will lock the two sides of the paper together

and here’s the gold-like shape ^_____^

the secret to fold these papers is that you have to fold it ONCE and do not unfold and do it again and again, i.e. you have to be determined.

here are other shapes you can fold the papers into; the left picture is gold-bar shape while the right one (i think it) looks like pagoda 8D. and see how creative my sister is :

but i dont think our ancestors will want any plane or space shuttle :[]

and we believe this is a must for our ancestor :} notice that it’s “hell bank of universal” ahaha we make sure that they can use this banknote everywhere LOL

while we were enjoying folding papers and did our handicraft near our backyard, we unintentionally disturbed the birds family. there’s a robin bird family build a nest on the prone of our tree in the backyard, the little bird was in the nest while the mother flew away when we approach them unconsciously >///< gomenasai robin-san. we were afraid if the mother will gone forever and left the little bird die but later the mother came back with something in its beak >_> so we moved ourselves away from the trees and the mother did feed her kids <3 NICE shot i witness [but i didnt dare taking a photo, i was afraid i would chase them away...]

mama, i really miss you T_T please tell you company to bring you back here in bangkok !

the whole festival continued until afternoon. i ate my “bajang” and gone asleep zZZ everyone use up all the energy but it was fun ^________^

here is out of our bajang topic but it’s about bamboo too. this is the latest song from So Cool a real cool thai rock band, i always surprised by this band about the way they play with words in lyrics and its meaning. they are very talented! this song is called ” ไผ่ลู่ลม ” (Phai Lu Lom = bamboo bending with w-inds.) i also provide the original thai and romanized lyrics plus translation by ME >///< please ping back and credit me “foyles” if you repost either romanized and/or translated lyrics anywhere ^ ^

song : ไผ่ลู่ลม [phai lu lom]

artist : so cool >> album FIVE

lyrics : แสนคม สมคิด [sankhom somkid]

music : โจ๊ก (Joke) So Cool

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

ไม้ไผ่พริ้วลู่ลม

Maiphai phriu lu lom

Bamboo shakingly bend in the winds

ไม่ต้านทานสู้แรงกับใคร

Mai tan than su raeng kab khrai

Do not resist against anyone

ปล่อยพายุให้มันผ่านไป

Ploi payu hai man phan pai

Let the storm blown through

ไม้ใหญ่ต้องล้มตาย

Mai yai tong lom tai

Big trees have to die

สู้กับลมเพราะตรงมากไป

su kab lom phro trong mak pai

Fight with the wind because of being too straight

ไม่ยอมใครแม้ตายกับสายลม

mai yom khrai mae tai kab sailom

Do not surrender to anyone even have to die with the wind

** คือสัจธรรมส่องนำทางชีวิตให้พ้นภัย

Khue sat-cha-tham song nam thang chevit hai phon phai

(it) is the truth shiningly usher the life to go out of danger

จะเก่งยังไง อย่าเอาตัวไปขวางทางแรงลม

Cha keng yang ngai ya ao tua pai kwang thang rang lom

No matter how brave (you are) do not bring yourself to obstruct the wind-power’s path

ยอมหักยอมงอพอให้มีชีวิตในสังคม

Yom hak yom ngor phor hai me chevit nai sangkhom

Tolerate to break and bend just to survive in the society

ไผ่ลู่ลมยอมอ่อนเอน

Phai lu lom yom on en

Bamboo bending in the wind tolerates to passively sway

ฉันขอเป็นดั่งไม้ไผ่ ฉันไม่เป็นหรอกไม้ใหญ่

Chan khor pen dang maiphai Chan mai pen rok mai yai

I want to be like a bamboo; I do not want to be like a big tree.

ล้มลงวันใด ก็ไม่วายถูกเผาเอาทำฟืน

Lom long wan dai khor mai wai thuk phao ao tham fuen

Whenever fell down, inevitably will be burnt into a firewood

ฉันขอเป็นดั่งไม้ไผ่ ถึงแข็งแรงไม่เหมือนใคร

Chan khor pen dang maiphai thung khang-rang mai muean khrai

I want to be like a bamboo even if its strong is unlike others

ขอเพียงรอดตาย ให้ได้มีชีวิตก็พอแล้ว

Khor pheang rod tai hai dai me chevit kor phor laew

Just be able to survive and be alive are enough.

ทุกสิ่งล้วนตั้งใจ

Thuk sing luan tang chai

(in doing) Everything is determined.

ไม่ยอมงอพุ่งชนเข้าไป

Mai yom ngor phung chon kao pai

Do not tolerate to bend, directly smash into.

แต่สุดท้ายไม่มีใครเห็น

Tae sud-thai mai me khrai hen

But, finally, no one see

ทุกอย่างล้วนยากเย็น

Thuk yang luan yak yen

Everything is hard.

เป็นดั่งคนไม่มีเหตุผล

Pen dang khon mai me hedphon

Being like an unreasonable man

กลับเป็นคนไม่ดีในสายตา

Klab pen khon mai dee nai sai-ta

Turn to be a bad man in (someone’s) sight

* repeat the underlined part

ไม้ไผ่พริ้วลู่ลม ไม้ใหญ่ต้องล้มตาย

Maiphai phriu lu lom Mai yai tong lom tai

Bamboo shakingly bend in the wind. Big trees have to die.

the intro part of this song reminisce me the song “zombie” 6_6 well both songs do have some similarity that i like <3 anyway please excuse my bad skill u/\u that i cannot fully translate how the songwriter is SO talented but i bet your ears can tell how beautiful the song and the lyrics are. Note that the romanization do not recognise thai tone, therefore ล้ม (= to fall) and ลม(= the wind) will be just “lom” and ไม้ (= wood, tree, timbre) and ไม่ (= no, not) will be just “mai” and you will see these kind of problem throughout every thai romanization v_V

well that’s all for today. thank you so much if you really read through to this line >,,< HAHA

foyles