Pixel Bug Weekend: Lantern Festival at Hatyai City

The lantern festival is held from November-February every year at Hatyai City Municipality Park, Hatyai City, Songkhla, South Thailand. This year is the fourth year celebration. They have 9 Amazing Lantern Zones and we’ve just visited half of them.These are the following zones that we've visited last Friday night.

• World of Kids’ Lantern- this zone is filled with imagination and joy

• International Lantern-

Under this zone, there are various types of flowers that represent different countries in Asia .

1. Philippines’ Sampaguita – represents purity and mildness.

Philippine Lanterns called Parol or Star Lantern-

2. Thailand’s Golden Shower Tree- It is a propitious tree with former name of “koon” which means “multiplicity” in Thailand. This tree is believed to be the tree of “Honor and Dignity”.

3. China Mei Blossom or Apricot tree is regarded as the first flower of the year in China- meaning it starts to flower in the first month which is winter. It’s the only flower that blossom during this season therefore this tree symbolizes cheerfulness, blessedness, longevity and youthfulness.

Chinese read and gold lanterns (auspicious symbol and color of the Chinese)

4. Korea “Moo-Koong-Khwa” or Rose of Sharon is the flower that can withstand harsh weather and weeds. “Moo-Koong” means immortality and it is used to symbolize the immortality of Korean’s history, determination and patience.

5. India’s Indian Lotus is known as the queen of water plant that combines both beauty and usefulness. This plant is significantly important for Buddhism because it represents “worship”.

Indian lanterns or “Diwali” are used during Light festival in India (for Hindus) . During the festival, people will light their oil lamps for their fortune godmother or Lakshmi goddess to come and bless them.

6. Japan's Sakura (cherry blossoms) in Japanese comes from the word “Sa-ku-ya” which means “blossom” after the name of Princess Konohana Sakuyahimae. Her name meansPrincess Blossom and she was given this name because it was told that she fell from heaven to Sakura tree. Therefore, Sakura is the national flower of Japan. It has special characteristics, that is, all the flowers will fall at the same time and is regarded as the symbol of Japanese soldier and samurais.

7. Malaysia's Shoe Flower is referred as the Queen of tropical flowers. Shoe flower is considered as a perfect flower because it contains both the male and female pollen therefore it represents completeness and attactiveness. 

 

 

• Wonderful Creative Lantern of 14 Provinces of South Thailand- 

 We haven't yet visited the other 10 Lanterns from the provinces of South Thailand.

• Festive Lantern-represents Christmas season
  

 

I can't wait to visit this place before it ends on February 2010.  More amazing zones are yet to be discovered.

How's your weekend? Can't wait to see more entries at Pixel Bug Weekend.

Heaps of Awards

It's nice to receive awards for your blogs from your fellow bloggers. It just means that you're remembered and valued:). I wanna thank Red of Simple Pero Rock for sharing to me her awards. Here they are: 

 

 

 

 

Thanks also for sharing these fabulous awards to my other blogs namely:

• Adventures with Hyzyd
• Her and History 
  
• Tasty Exploration
• Teaching Moments
• The Fashion Explorer

I will have to pass these awards sooner or later as long as I can finalize my blog list:)

Ta-ta for now.

Pixel Bug Weekend: Father's day Celebration

As I posted here,  Father's day is celebrated here in Thailand on the 5th of December as it is their King's birthday. The celebration will last for a week. Yesterday, we went to Ma Maison- a Bakery and a Coffee House to treat the daddy of the house.

Today at church, we also have a short program for the fathers.

a Thai interpretative dance

our minister giving honor to the king by bowing

 we light candles and sing a special song for the king

 

all fathers were called out to be prayed for and be given recognition

 

our Hyzyd offered a flower to his dad

 

my brother, a newly dad received a flower from his 1 month old daughter

 

Why yellow flowers? Yellow is the King's birth color because yellow is the color of a Monday birth according to traditional Thai beliefs. So every Monday throughout the year most Thais wear a special yellow shirt to honor the King.

Rome in the Philippines

Lipa City in Batangas is dubbed “Rome of the Philippines because of the number of seminaries, convents, monasteries, retreat houses, and a famous cathedral located in it. (as I read from www.hotel4stay.com)

No internet connection yet

All my remaining energy were exhausted after I gave the announcement of winners yesterday. I just wanted to keep my promise to you that I will announce the winners on the 10th of November. Now that my contest concluded, all my energy to blog was temporarily drained. It's hard to blog in school you know. After lunch break, I have to go to the other building , climb the 5th storey building where the school's internet room is found, surf the internet for an hour- the most time I could spare, get downstairs and be back to the teacher's office to prepare for the afternoon's class.

I called TOT yesterday to follow-up our telephone and internet connection. They asked us to wait for another 3 days! Okay, what can I do? I just have to wait....Anyway, I'm enjoying my life being temporarily disconnected to the blogosphere though I miss my friends in here and joining interesting memes- Girls Talk, Couples Corner, Mommy Moments and more! I simply enjoy the life I used to be without the internet. I hope to back here in blogosphere as soon as possible.

I couldn't update this site yet...

We moved to a new apartment last Saturday. I haven't yet settled in our new place and maybe it will take me a month to unpack and arrange everything. We already started our class today and it seems that I'm cramming with my lessons..Waaahhhhh....but thanks be to God that I'm doing fine this morning in my class - workbooks were already distributed in each class and during the review my learners remembered the past vocabularies they've learned and the songs that I've taught them.

It may take a week before I'll be connected to internet again. So just please bear with me this time. This is the reason why I can't visit you back nor reply to your comments. I couldn't join memes too. I appreciate your visit here, your sweet messages and comments. Thank you so much.

About the contest, it will difinitely end on the 5th of November and I hope we'll have internet connection again ASAP so that I could announce the winnners on the 10th. Thank you for supporting my first contest.

More updates to come...

My hands are so full the past week. We went to Bangkok for 3 days, celebrated Hyzyd's first birthday and my father's 51st birthday. I'll post here next time the places we visited in Bangkok and more. Please stay tuned:)

PS. I supposed to blog something new here but our pictures is in our PC and my family is watching a movie so I'm using my brother's lappy at the moment.