HAPPY VESAK DAY! To all Buddhists everywhere, including my friends, family, and me! :)

Today me and my family left early, at ard 10.40am, to go to the temple to pray. We were still discussing which one to go to, as it was kind of late in the morning and most temples wld be crowded by now. Eventually, we decided on a temple in the Joo Chiat area, and my Dad drove us there.

So we arrived there, and had to park some distance away as the carpark was full and there were still many cars circling and waiting. The temple was quite crowded, wif people from all walks of life, young and old, coming here on this special day. We walked in under the temple gates, then made a beeline for the jossticks.

I struggled a little trying to get the 3 jossticks, then had to find an available oil lamp to light it up. There wasnt much flame to go ard, and I had to light one first, then use it to light the others. One thing I dun like abt crowded temples is tt ppl arent careful enough wif their jossticks. It usually gets quite smokey, and sometimes u get ash in ur eye, like what happened to me later. Gah! I had to blink to let the tears wash it out, and it turned out this woman behind me had raised her jossticks over my head while waiting for me to finish praying. Sheesh. Probably some on my hair too.

After tt, mainly praying at all the altars I guess. There were many different deities, each of them impt. The statues of Buddha and Kuan Yin were really majestic, gold-plated and sitting on lotus platforms behind the glass. The whole temple had a really high ceiling and supporting it were pillars carved with dragons snaking ard it, as well as large tables covered wif lighted oil lamps and floweres. Offerings, no doubt.

After tt, we made our way to a huge tent area beside the temple to eat some vegetarian food. We were all hungry, and sat on plastic chairs munching on bee hoon and mock meat.

Then, well, we left. Mum was still hungry, so we decided to find another place wif a shorter queue to eat. We drove to Lorong 25 Geylang, to this small temple sandwhiched along a row of shophouses. It was called zhong de fo tang I think. It was really small compared to the other one, but somehow it was really impt too. We prayed and then sat down, this time sharing a round table wif some other worshippers. Then, suddenly, a lion-dance troupe wif 5 LIONS appeared!

2 red, 3 yellow, one of them comprising 2 female lion-dancers. They were kinda young, some younger than me, prob from a youth organization. The cymbals started clanging, the drums started rolling, and soon all 5 lions made their way into the temple.

As if tt wasnt enough, during the meal, a dragon-dance troupe arrived! Wow. Not cheap to invite all these performers, u knw. The dragon danced in circles on the side of the road, and at times it looked as if it was going to tie itself up in a knot! Haha. Also comprising young performers, it gracefully snaked it's way into the temple too.

By then which the lions had prob left, or else there wld have been a traffic-jam of lions and 1 dragon in the small area in front of the main altar of Buddha. We were done wif our meal, so we left for home.

Altogether an interesting and blessed day. Yup yup. Shld go to temple to pray more often, though I hardly have the time, what wif sch, pdps and all.

Ta-ta.