Tag Archives: honolulu chinatown

Weekly Photo Challenge: Object (or Objective of the Object: Kung Hei Fat Choi!) 2

Celebrations, Chinese New Year, photography • Tags: , ,
Welcoming the five blessings: longevity, wealth, health, peace, and the enjoying of a ripe, old age.
May God bless you and your family.

Traditionally, Chunlian or lucky red papers are hung in doorways of homes in China. I learned the papers are red because the Chinese word for red sounds like prosperous and red symbolizes joy, virtue, truth, and sincerity. Today the messages are for success, health, wealth, prosperity, joy, peace and harmony, etc. It is important to take down and discard the old Chunlian just before Chinese New Year.

Today is the first official day of Chinese New Year although Honolulu has been celebrating for a couple of weeks. Therefore, when I saw today’s WordPress weekly photo challenge was object, I knew I would be using photos I took last weekend during our Chinatown celebration to wish you many blessings in 2014 while sharing the objects I photographed.

Commonly known as the Goddess of Mercy.
Common feng shui cure.
Dancing in the streets.

Kuan Yin is the Chinese name for the bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara, who can be depicted as either male or female. Many stories about her remind me of the stories of the Christian Saints. She also is known as the Goddess of Compassion and Mercy which makes her a favorite of mine. You can learn more about her by reading: What is Kuan Yin? at Religion Facts (dot) com.

While the bamboo was my object in the second picture above, I love the lady in the window. She was photographing the lion dance too.

I took video instead of pictures of the parade.

I took video instead of pictures of most of the parade. Thus, this is a screen shot from my video.

This year my photo objects were different from a couple of years ago, thanks to Photography 101.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! (Happy New year! May prosperity and all good things be with you and yours!)

The Year of the Water Dragon 9

Celebrations, Chinese New Year, Family • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

You might have noticed that I was off-line most of last week and the beginning of this week. We have been celebrating Chinese New Year. This year we are taking no chances with our luck.

Not only did we attend the Chinese New Year parade and feed the lion, we also decorated for the New Year. I couldn’t resist buying these guys when I saw them at the street vender during the Honolulu Chinatown block party.

I brought a steamer and spent a full day making gau, a sticky pudding made with mochi flour, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and water. I even made it the old-fashioned way this year instead of in the microwave.

Here’s how it turned out! I gave some to my in-laws since gau is supposed to help families stick together.

Hubby and I got these to bring good karma to our home.

And this big one to place in our entry way.

I also spent time organizing and cleaning the house, and of course we had a wonderful Chinese meal that included a whole chicken for family harmony combined with a whole lobster for a harmonious marriage and noodles for long life and shrimp dumplings for wealth.

Kung Hee Fat Choy! (May prosperity be with you!)