Monday, October 02, 2006

Pesta Tanglung (Malay : Lantern Fest)

We never used to take note of such events, but since we have Zara now and would like to expose her to as much as we could, we spotted a banner around KL the other day about this Lantern Fest in Central Market happening on Sept 30th. While dressing Zara up, she asked for her jeans to wear. When I took out the jeans we bought recently, she said, "Don't want this one. Not nice. Want the flower one. The button got flowers one.".. So she chose what she wore. Off we went to KL town. Firstly, a stop at Lakes Gardens (yet again) to feed the monkeys and a round of play in the huge play ground. While feeding the monkeys, one of the monkey touched Zara's hands while trying to reach out for the peanut. She immediately said, "Don't yike (like) monkey touch Zara. Go home (asking us to bring her home)! Don't want feed monkeys any more!" (Recently, although she likes animals still, she prefers not to touch them or let them touch her except the cat in our house.) We finished throwing the last bit of peanuts from the open pack (with Daddy carrying Zara), and then left for the play ground.

She greeted the 'friendly' dinosaur first. Then it was off to the ginger bread man bridge. She loved the swing there. She said the see-saw is better than the one from our park.

When it got dark we headed to Central Market and had a quick bite at the food court. The Lantern Fest was at the Central Market car park. They were giving out free paper lanterns, goodie packs with drinks and mooncake (but we didn't take it since we don't really fancy mooncakes). There was a lantern making contest, and the lanterns were hung in Central Market itself for every one to view and judge. There was also a stage put up for some cultural performance. While some VIPs were making speeches, we just explored the surrounding. We found out there was going to be a lion dance, and a lantern procession.

Touching the Lion's head, she only wanted to touch the head with her straw. Exploring while waiting for the speeches to be completed.

We even managed to see a Dragon Dance, something not as common as the Lion Dance. It was quite nicely done (with the dragon twirling, twisting, flipping about chasing after a ball), and our very first experience seeing one.

Lantern procession (the photos didn't turn out quite well). Dragon and Lio Dance.
We left when an elderly lady took on the stage to sing some Chinese oldies. :P

26 comments:

L B said...

Love the Dragon pics!! Very nicely composed too, by you. Didn't think of me when you declined the free mooncake?!! *sigh*

Anonymous said...

Joelle haven't got chance to meet those dragon dance & Lion dance! Sigh..

Anonymous said...

dragon dance looks funky! hey, Zara has new haircut? she looks so cute with a fringe!

Anonymous said...

Nice jeans she got...and she can pose really well for the pix huh?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my nieces... always want to choose what they want to wear.

Happy Autumn festival! Its this friday officially...

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely looking forward to bingeing on mooncakes!!! Does Zara like mooncakes?

cutiepie said...

now no more monkey feeding .. as zara dun yike them anymore .. cute new look

Sasha Tan said...

Wah got new hair cut lah! So Kiut!

Anonymous said...

I kept reading the title Pesta Tanglung (Malay : Lantern Fest).

Shouldnt it be (English: Lantern Fest) ? Or maybe the brackets made me confused :P

jazzmint said...

wow another eventful weekend...didn't know they had this in Central Market

Anonymous said...

wow got dragon dance, sure Wien & Lyon love to watch!!

seefei said...

you remind me of kampung time but now we can only "enjoy" this festival in specially arranged event in shopping complex.

zara must have a good time playing w the monkey and watching the lion dance!!

Anonymous said...

haihssss..when u peeple were happily enjoying ur lion dance ..me n karen n daddy were stuck in a jam for over an hr...without our dinner..huarrghhhhhh.....

Helen said...

I don 't remember how many zillion yrs ago I last went to a pesta tanglung. lol

Glad Zara had a swell time there. Zara not afraid of the lion hor? I remember I used to be terrified at the lion...

Anonymous said...

i also love lantern but don't really know why. Just love it

Shannon said...

Zara start to choose her baju already? hehe, nice combination leh.... and I like her jeans too...

How come suddenly afraid to touch the animals? starting to be hygienic liao? which is good actually... dunno wat kind of germs the wild monkeys have mar, and the cat at home, of course clean... Zara smart wor....

Anonymous said...

zara acquiring good fashion sense yar!!! Good on her!

Anonymous said...

I miss the latern fest in PISA Penang until I read the newspaper yesterday. :S Shhh..let's not tell my children.

Anonymous said...

I experience that oredi.. Very difficult when they start choosing what they want to wear! Sometimes not appropriate at all!

The other day we went shoe shopping, Champion didn't like all the shoes we choose! *sigh*

Anonymous said...

U guys very terror one, must be tons of people there. My girl is also like Zara, likes to choose her own dress nowadays.

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean trying to subject our kids to cultural events. You're lucky that Msia is still holding such events.

blurblur said...

Ya,we become more aware of all kind of festive after the kids come along huh..;)

Zara not sked of the Dragon dance? Is it very loud? I'm still terrified of Lion and Dragon dance..ya ya, i'm one timid mousie lah..:P

Anonymous said...

lake gardens...again???:)

ZMM said...

Lb,
Next time I’ll think of you when I have moon cakes. :P

Joelle,
Next year CNY, remember to ask mummy to bring you see dragon and lion dance ok?

May,
I did the hair cut.. Err.. funny looking huh?

Sesame,
The jeans was something she had when she turned 1.. still wearing that because her waist line didn’t increase, but you can see the length is so much shorter now.
And yes, she started to know how to post and smile at the camera now, but I call that a fake smile.

Domestic Rat,
Actually we do take moon cake, but only certain ones.. I love ‘ping pei’ green tea moon cake but this year, I’d not had any.
Zara doesn’t seem to fancy it..

Cp1,
Zara said she will still feed them if Daddy carried her.

Sasha,
Mummy is the hairstylist loh.. Coconut style. :P

Julian,
Bracket is supposed to tell you what language the Pesta Tanglung is in, and the translation in English.. confusing eh?

Jasmine,
We didn’t either, until we saw the posters up around KL.

Jesslyn,
Yeah, they are quite fun to watch. I’m sure your girls will like it too.

See Fei,
It’s a shame huh? We used to have this in our neighbourhood during CNY time. Then bad time came and people cannot afford it any more etc, and then now mostly we see them in the shopping malls.

Eve,
Poor poor you..

Helen,
Err.. you boy big enough, no need you to bring any more so you don’t have to go to any one any more. :P
She was a bit afraid, but as long as we have her near us, she’s fine.

Myong,
I love lantern too, in fact I think I like playing with it more than Zara.

Simple American,
Aaah.. you don’t have a big enough community in Houston to have a dragon dance?
I told her she looked like a shaggy dog if she didn’t trim her hair, so she let me do it, but only the fringe. No where else.

Shanon,
Yeah, started to be her own personal fashion adviser.
I think after she got a kick from the pony when we went to A-Famosa, she started to be afraid of touching animal.s

Mott,
Mummy’s handy work that one.

Michelle,
Hee hee.. there’s always next year.

Geetha,
Haha you are right, sometimes the combination sucks!
Oh boy, it’s just going to get worse is it?

Immomsdaugther,
Not really ton of people, more foreigners and a group of kids from 2 homes who attended. We just stood at the Central Market away from the crowd to watch the performance. :P

Vien,
Haha.. only if we’re observant enough to see posters put up.. then we can catch one.

Blurblur,
Yes.
Zara not scared. Since it’s in an open space, the sound is muffled out, so no too loud.
Alamak, you are a very timid mummy. :P

Mom2Ashley,
Yes, it’s free, and I’m still mobile.. so it’s good to bring her there as often especially during puasa month since there’ll be fewer children.

Allyfeel said...

Wow...that's really nice. Actually our neighbourhood also has one but hubby said don't want to join. *shake head*

LHS said...

Zara not afraid of the dragon dance? Wow, she is very brave enough.

Oh, ya, i seldom see any dragon dance performance, sure it's very attractive dance.

p/s: Don't know why i can't see any updated posts in your blog until i have to refresh the page for several times.