1937-07-31 — Page 11

SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1937

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH WEEK-END SECTION

3

THIS WEEK T. PAUL GREGORY Tells You About The

ROMANTIC FABLE OF THE 6th MOON FESTIVAL

THE AMAHS' PRAYER TO

ONE

THE MYTHICAL

GODDESS KWOON-YAM

NE of the commonest re- incidentally have an astronomienl ing to Chinese notions the weather

origin, for it is an these occasions, so alliem the Chinese with evident truth, that "Old Sol" is wont to display his strength. The first event which usually falls about July 7 is stated to be merely warning of the summer heat which is bound to follow, and, this beat is alleged to reach its climax on the 23rd of the anth, for accord

arks made by the casual European observer is to the effect that life in the Far East appears at the first blush to be largely a succession of various gala events. Indeed, much might be said of the paucity of seasonal events in the solar calendar of the West; for, in comparison, every month in the

Curio statuette of Kwoon-Yam, the mythical goddess referred to in Mr. Gregory's story. Photograph taken by "staff photographer by courtesy of The Little Shop.

Chinese lunar year is literally crowded with festivals which are celebrated by the masses with appropriate ceremonies and which on occasion descend to the most picturesque and even carnivalesque fanfare. Of these months, the sixth moon in the Chinese calendar, which roughly corresponds to our month of July is amongst the most inter- esting, and, moreover, its fete days are celebrated even in Hongkong with an extraordinary degree of fervour, by the average Child of Cathny.

Two of the festivals, if auch they may be termed, and which adventitiously occur in mid-sum- mer, are the s called Süechne and Toni-ahue, ie. "The Periods of Lesser and Greater Heat," which

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after that date then begins to be- eustom, the periods of the "Lesser ***ITTE more equable. In popular and Greater Heats" are made the revasion for the partaking of various cooling drinks, one of them being prepared from a species of was-gourd (Ceren beniens) which "winter melon." This vegetable the Chinese term tung-kira or

is generally cooked in an abun- dance of fuit, and the resultaat effusion is stated to be extremely efficacius in counteracting any ill Teeta which may arise from the exessive heat which is unfortuni- atoly a necessary congomitant of Hongkong's senti-tropical summer. Famous South China

Dish

In Canton, there is offered in the restaurants at this season a specially pr. pared dish which is famous throughout all South China, and is, furthermore, one at the gustatory romaner of the Cantonese epirure. Thi dish. which is incidentally termed finge kwa-chung is prepared from one of these melons, The pects are reonped out and the conenvity tilled with a plenitude of ingre- dients, amongst them being mush- rooms, strips of dried bean-vurd ad a kind of edible fungus called yuk-yi (Eridin hispidule), whigh Borally significa "ears of trees." In fact, tang-kwa-ching is an ex- cellent dish, and, is one of the must famous of the many culinary won- ders that emanate from the kit chums of Chinese elofs during the SUMMER Senson. Truly, this is the SPAFOD for indulgence a delect able dainties, but as the Chines sagely renpark: Sin-shur, Tanisha ho-shik Ján chne --"In the period. of the Lesser suid Greater Heat», sae is very fond of eating but is really too lazy to do any cooking." Twelfth Day Festival

On the 12th day of the sixth anon July 19th) in celebrated a

minor festival called the waiver sary day of the death of Phang-tse. This worthy was a mythical prison whos, life was hit out on the antediluvian plan and who is fabled to have lived nearly 800 years. in fact, so well known is this person-

HOW

Curio study of P'aang Tio, to commemorate whose death the 12th day of the sixth moon is celebrated by the Chinese. Photograph by staff photographer by courtesy of The Little Shop. age that there is not a house-boy tremely popular amongst Chinese or amah in Hongkong who has

ever heard of him, and the name Pang-to is made the occasion of many jocular remarks, soine of which do not strictly adhere to the limits of Chinese propriety,

However, the greatest day of the month is the fate of the Goddess of Mercy, whichneeurs on the 19th day of the 6th Moon (July 26). This is one of the most popular volebrations in the Chinese year, and is made the occasion, by the women-folk at bust, of much pre- paration and the offertag of in Pons, and the reciting of special prayers. Kwoon-yam, as she is called in the vernacular, favourite deity of the women pe ereelle ure, and is the Chinese" cotin-

#

the

women, by whom she is as much revered as is the Madonna in Catholic countries. There are many Chinese legends about Kwoom yam, and strange stories are re inted of her wonder-working power and also of her hardships, Romantic Fable

Women Like

Don't

You ..

·1-To attend to your nails in public.

2-To leave things lying about,

To play the radio too loud.

To be suspicious,

-to overlook the fact that no matter how opposed they are to housework they get infinite joy out of ra- arranging the furniture.

6-To forget that there are always several guest towels in a cupboard or drawer for the use of friends who want to have a wash.

-To neglect persistently to fulfil little household duties like Atting a new washer on a tap or tacking down a piece of loose carpet.

into its component parts a heap of mixed sesame seeds and green beans, This seemingly impossible task was accomplished in a short ime because a lock of swallows which to this day are called Kiruan- ptukai ar "chiekens of the God- dest of Mercy" came to her aid and performed the herculean labour with incredible dispatch. Moreover, her father, being still dissatisfied with her pretcutions, gave hor number of iron bars which she was to prind down into needles, and by supernatural' nid she was enabled to do this in record time.

On this day throughout the Province of Kwangtung, throngs of female visitors fork to the tem ples of the goddess bearing offer- ings of incense, paper garments to be presented as a burnt offering, and the usual array of decorous edremonies designed to evoke the attention of the benign goddess, Shy is the sperial resort of those

cultuurless whrise

rut laborious lives are filled with misery and pain. Your amah, for example, surfeited with the nebulous anany- mity of her daily existence, and the vicissitudes of her fortune. segls on this day an opportunity to improve her station and her petition to the goddess is poign hantly personal. She chafes at the thraddons of her hard, work-a-day life, and filled with a sort of per- vasive sadness invokes the Goddess of Mercy with a whole flood of dithyrambic syllables which she thus: pours forth in bounteoma profusion

In the very popular version, shy is represented as the daughter of Yuk-wong "the Jade Emperor" This worthy disbelieved the pre tenees of his daughter that posaugai divine attributes and sought to test her in various ways. Upon 1 ng occasion, it is alleged he sent her to the river with a coarse-

ly woren basket and told her to for part of Arolokitesvare of India. tiny fish had pity upon her and fetch water. The shrimp and She is regarded as the idealisation entered the meshes in her baskel of all that which is sweet and thus rendering it water-tight, so beatiful in women, and her chief that she can thus fetch water duty is to listen to the pleadings back to her irascible and oldurate of the unhappy and to sothe their troubles, er temples are 11.X- he demanded that she separate

parent. Upon another occasion.

JEALOUS

are you?

1

Have you ever gone Brough the pockets

of your husband's suit

0

Do you read his letters if he leaves them about?

3. Have you ever opened a letter aldressed.

to him and marked "Personal"!

4

Do you feel uneasy when he talks to a friendl about know?

10

a woman whom you don't

5 Are you anxious when he goes out a lot

C

in the evenings to parties that he tells 1 you are "Thusiness”?

When he goes home, do you look to see

if he has powder on his shoulder, rouge 13 on his handkerchief, or a strange per- fune on his tie?

7 Du you get cold feet when he introduces

ing to, when you don': how her?

When you are darwing and be cemarks

on a pretty woman, to you feel chilipped

to my. "If you want to dance with her, don't bother aimat me"!

Do you insist that he should dance with her again, saying, "She has a pretty nose, but her hands are hideous!

Or do you say, "She is lovely, and so stupi

Do you question his friends, as if by chance, tri And out if he was nút with them, as he told you?

In front of his friends, do you pretend to be indifferent, assuring them that he is quite free I'm not jealous at all?

14

a woman to you and says “She's a child- hood friend"?

Do you ring up his office at times when he's told yum be'll be there?

15

Do you ask him often about the nam115, * colour of eyes, type of women that he

knew before he met you?

Daring an evening out. do you stare without reasing at the woman he's talk-

over.

Two people can play this game.

Take it in turns to ask each other

the questions; you must answer them at once, without thinking them The who is asking the questions does the marking; 0 if

person you answer "No" without hesitation; 1 if you answer "No, but I might"; 2 if you answer "Yes or no, it depends"; 3 if you answer "Yes, certainly."

Add up the numbers you've got at the end. Any number between and 6 means you're not jealous at all. Take care; that's sometimes dangerous. If you marks are between 7 and 30, you are normally jealous. But if the marks add up to anything between 31 and 45 take yourself in hand. You suffer from a morbid, exaggerated jealousy which will cause you a lot of trouble.

A Lay Sermon

By Hugh Redwood

WE shan

be Wrong if we Imagine that Jesus "flaved up" at Poler, The whole point of His words lies in the fact that they were not directed at Peter but at Peter's deadly for.

He

Kave

the

Get thee behindapostle the key Me, Satan. to their mean- MATTHEW XV., 231 ng later. "Satan hah desired to have you," He told him at the Lust Supper. Satan was seeking him now, to have, to hold and to use. Satan was speaking with Peter's tips-Jesus reengnised the idiom and gave the Tempter the same reply as on a previous Occasion-and Peter was therefore in mortal peril. Instantly Jesus acted. Don't you see what He did when He uttered that "get thee behind Me"? He separated the Devil and Peter and pluccd Him- self between them.

The aclint was, and is, wholly- characteristle. We should make far fewer blunders If only we re- membered that, "He, to rescuc me from danger, Interposed His Precious Blood." Thus we sing; and may and many a time, when we fret al obstacles pinced in our path, He is keeping us just as He saved us, recognlaing the Tempter in walt, and Interposing Himself again.

"Fan-hrung yat-paai Is'ing Fun-heung i-puni txing Fan-heung saam-paai ts'ing Taing to maen-t'in Shan-fat lit-

wai chung-shun Karoon-yam neung-nemy ham-

mat lai-shan-tana Sing ***-shi fa-ani

Tung shing mui tran Woany-tr'oi shandri tak

ying shen

Shi ko muu ko

THE

Som-erung 82-ching Kwai-yan tak lik, lok-mu far-te'z He-shan ho-muai Kit-tak maun-yan quen

Tso-kunt), fan-fah ch"can-chc

kare-kan"

This may be freely translated as follows:

", the humble petitioner) offer up incense and invite thee once. twice and thrice

O, ye Gods and Buddhins please assemble in the heavens

O, thou Goddess of Mercy, to-day

is thy honourable birthday

(invite

I of the surtzine ****

thre)

May good fortune from both the Erest and the West come Into my hands

May both Time and Fate be pro-

pitious

May all the desires of my heart

be fulfilled

May the "Noble Gentleman" and "Green Horse" charms be efficacious

May I enjoy good health May my relationship with every

one be harmonious And may I be able to keep my situation for a long, long time."

Such in brief are some of the more common cuntoma prevailing amongst the Chineso masses nt the Occasion of the sixth moon.

***In these prayers it is the cuniom for the supplicant to in- sert her own surname na Wong, Lei, etc., as the case may be. If she is unmarried, she adds tho words "fa-nu?" (lower maiden) after her name, if married then she apponds the term "shan-nul" (one, whose body belongs to an- other), and finally if she is sworn to perpetual chastity, she adds, "ching-nul" (a virgin) after, her

surname, a

TEST ANSWERS

Week-End Problems

PROBLEM ?

THE CHESS TOURNAMENT 21 players participated.

(1) (2)

*

PROBLEM 11

0 11 I N D A T E AI

I T

NE M O

Who Is This?

Somerset Maugham,

Archbishop of York

The Maltwell Murder Casc

SOLUTION

The evidence that convicted Smith-Dingo was the discovery, in his possession, of a cigarette packagțe, Tel of four pound notes given in change at Abbot's Crutchley, all of which clearly hore thr fingerprints, both of George Greene, and of the mur- dered wom

པ དེ དེ :ཀྱི ད ར ར

* CAN'T ALWAYS BE WATCHING THEM HOW, NURSI, HOW CAN I ALLP THEM HEALTHY?"

"You're very wise to ask

that, Mrs. Bartlett. And I'll tell you the way in which you can help them must.

"Make sure of internal cleanliness by giving them a regular weekly dose of California Syrup of Figs.* This specially important with children at the critical age, like yours, who are working hard for their exams. There's nothing pulls them down more than poison in the system it affects their general, health, making them liable to catch any infection that's

about, going

"In my experience 'California Syrup

of

Figs does far more than simply cleanse the system. It acts quile naturally, and gently and keeps the digestion healthy and active.

"I find "California Syrup of Figs equally good for adults, especially for women. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Bartlett, I use it myself and recom- mend you to adopt it for the whole family.

Be sure to get the genuine "California Syrup of Figs."

"California

Syrup of Figs"

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"TELEGRAPHS”

EVERYWHERE.