Birthday of Chor So
Kong
Chor So Kong was a Tang dynasty monk
who specialized in exorcism and healing. His birthday falls on the 6th day
of the sixth moon of the lunar calendar. In the afternoons and evenings,
Chinese opera will be staged before the Snake Temple in Sungai Kluang. Devotees
offer eggs to the temple snakes.
Birthday of the Goddess of
Mercy
Here Her birthday is celebrated
for a second time by the Chinese on the 19th day of the sixth
moon.
 Hungry
Ghosts
Hungry Ghost also known as Phor Thor
festival is a month long celebration. According to the Chinese folk belief,
the first day of the seven moon is when the gates of hell open to let out
the ghost to wander among the living. Prayers, incense, hell money, and food
are offered to appease these ghosts. Private enterprise also sponsors the
staging of Chinese street opera and puppet theater, which can be seen in
different neighborhoods most nights of the month.
Double
Sevens
The legend tells of the Weaver,
a heavenly maiden and one of the seven sisters, who falls in love with a
mortal,the Cowherd. Due to circumstances, they cannot be together and meet
only once a year across the Milky Way on this night. Unmarried women make
offerings to Seven Sisters on the eve of the double seven on the 7th day
of the seventh moon of the lunar calendar.
Chong Yuen Ti Kuan Ta
Ti
A Taoist deity, receives offerings that
are made to cleanse oneself of past sins. Simultaneously, paper and food
offerings are also made to Tai Su Yah, who rules the underworld, with his
two wardens., Tua Pek, who is seen with chain, and Jee Pek, who is seen with
a fan. Sheds are constructed by the roadside to house paper representations
of these deities which are made in the shops along Carnavon Street and elsewhere.
This observance is also called Chit Guek Puah, meaning mid-seventh month.
The Cantonese observe it on the 14th day and the Hokkiens on the 15th day
of the moon.
Birthday of Tai
Sui
On the 19th day of the seventh moon,
those people who feel vindictive can cut out paper siau ren (evil
men), hang them upside down at the altar of Tai Sui, and beat them with their
slippers while pronouncing the hated person's name along with a string of
curses.
 Mooncake
Festival
This festival commemorates the overthrow of the
Mongols, when the insurgent revolutionary leaders, by way of smuggling secret
messages in mooncakes, called the people to revolt. It is celebrated by the
Chinese on the 15th day of the eight lunar moon. Children carry paper lanterns
through the streets on this full moon night.
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Birthday of Guru
Nanak
Guru Nanak is the founder of Sikhism.
Celebrations here is added with non-stop reading of the Granth Sahib for
48 hours. Devotional songs and meals for the masses are held at the Diamond
Jubilee Sikh Gudwara, Brick Kiln Road, and other Sikh temples.
The Masi Maham
Festival
This festival will take place at the Sri Singamuga Kaliaman Temple, Teluk
Bahang (right next to the Mutiara Beach Hotel).
During the day, there is a kavadi procession
to the temple. Hundreds of Hindus will gather on the open beach in the afternoon
to watch young boys and girls perform dances with sticks. They are accompanied
by musicians who set the rhythm.When the sun sets, the statue of the Goddess
Kali is placed on a raft is pulled out by a boat and stays out at sea for
about an hour. Fireworks are shot into the night sky. On its return, the
raft is thronged by the waiting crowds, who reach out to receive holy ash.
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