Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - The Preparation @ Ampang

The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is just around the corner, and many temples are no doubt, in the process of getting ready for the festival that starts on October 13th this year. At Ampang, the temple staff were busy cleaning up and getting things up and ready for the festival. So whilst there were many old things that were being spruced up, there is something new too at the temple for this year's celebration.... a new altar table!

The new altar weighs 4 tonnes in total, and is made from a base platform, two side blocks, two panels and a table top, all stone/granite. It was fun as well as many moments filled with trepidation as forklift, straps and manpower were used to assemble the altar table and getting all the parts aligned.

More... more... more..  Placing the table top of the new altar.

All done... were they discussing what 4D (lottery number) to buy???

The new altar... it ain't heavy, it is 4 tonnes!!!

Of course we cannot forget things that are old, and things that most of the devotees and visitors are familiar with at the temple like these photos below.

Divination blocks all stung up with new yellow string

Dragon pillar and light from the airwell.

Kids waiting for their ride home under the pagoda tower.

Here's something err.... 'old'... Cheryl Hoffmann all ready for photo action at the temple.

Kids having a little fun with joss-sticks that were hung up for sale.

The old signs used to direct vehicular traffic leaving the temple.

   

Coming Up... Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015

Yes, time files so quickly... It is almost that time of the year again, the time of Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015. Here in Ampang, the famous Nine Emperor Gods Temple had already started the preparation for the festival a week ago.

Yesterday, the Lantern pole was taken out to the courtyard of the temple.... 

So get ready folks for nine days of vegetarian fair, smoky joss sticks, Chinese opera, clanging bells and lots of activity at Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015. The first day of the festival falls on the 13th Oct 2015 and the ninth day is on the 21st of Oct 2015.

However, here at Ampang, the festivities start on the eve, 12th of Oct 2015 with the Lantern Pole raising (click for 2013's lantern pole raising ceremony) and then followed by the invitation in the evening that includes a procession.

So keep those dates free and do remember, here at Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival, the hustle and bustle starts in the evening and goes on till the early hours or the morning (like 3 - 4am).

IMPORTANT DATES:

• 12 Oct 2015 - Eve of the festival (raising the lantern pole) and invitation of the Nine Emperor Gods in the evening (procession).
• 13 Oct 2015 - First day of the festival
• 14 Oct 2015 - Invitation of the Finance Minister (procession)
• 21 Oct 2015 - Ninth day (last day) of the festival

Stay tuned for more fun images and happenings on this festival.

Links for 2015 Nine Emperor Gods Festival:

• Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - the Preparation
• The Nine Emperor Gods are here - Invitation ceremony 
• Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - First Day @ Ampang
• Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - Day Two 
• Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - Feeding of the Heavenly Army 
 

• For more information and lovely photos on this festival, I would recommend Cheryl Hoffmann's site.

Yellow is... beautiful

There is just this strange attraction that the colour yellow has on this nation. From the royal colour to a 'reviled' protest, we seem to be attracted to all things yellow. And yellow Adeniums are of course, very popular.

Adenium Thong Yod (or Thong Yot) - golden drop. The yellow is strong, but takes on a greenish-chrome yellow tone. Well, still better than pale off-white yellows.

Despite the attractiveness of yellow adeniums, they all tend to have a major flaw, at least in our climate. The yellows tend to fade to cream or white, or never develops the intensity that is advertised when grown in say Taiwan or Thailand. However, the plus side of yellow blooms are that most of them are weakly fragrant or more so in some selected hybrids.

Adenium Yellow Premsup - a pale yellow aging to pink blush yellow.

Adenium Princess Fragrance - the scent is rather strong, especially as the flowers age.

I believe that this is due to pigments or pigment development that is temperature sensitive or controlled by temperature sensitive gene transcriptions. Some bicoloured reds are too, ranging from truly two-toned to just pure red depending on the temps that were prevalent when the buds were developing.

The two-tone petals of Adenium Vietnam Love appears to be temperature sensitive. Too warm and they turn all red.

Perhaps breeding of yellows could be done in Malaysia, and a strong persistent yellow form be found for our climate that doesn't fade away.