Gong Xi Fa Cai 新年快乐

     Last week I spent 5 days in my friend Jia Jin's hometown. There we celebrated the Lunar New Year with all her family. We ate many foods that are a specialty for New Years, like steamboat for the reunion dinner, and dumplings. Also there were fireworks every night. This is a very important celebration for the Chinese and is celebrated all around the world. Here in Malaysia there are many customs, like eating steamboat for the reunion dinner, firecrackers, giving mandarin oranges to family and friends, and giving red envelopes with money. Also, Buddhists will go and pray in the temple on the first day of the New Year.
     For Jia Jin's family, this is the one time of the year were all the family gets together and can enjoy each other's presence, so every night the children and adults will stay up very late playing cards or watching movies because it not every day where they can be together. This is true for many families as well, not just Jia Jin's.

Yummy homemade dumplings

The women making dumplings

Chinese lanterns

Chair in a Buddhist temple. When sitting on it, your body becomes possessed with a god, or so I was told

Yay! I got lots of red envelopes

The most adorable little girl in traditional Chinese clothes

I love these little girls <3 

Praying on New Year's Eve

Praying in the temple on New Years day

A cool looking guy in the temple

An unforgettable birthday

      This is really late, like almost a month late but better late then never. For my birthday I had the chance to experience Thaipusam! It was so exciting and scary and kind of disturbing but it was really amazing. For those who don't know, Thaipusam is a Hindi celebration celebrated by the Tamil community on the full moon on the Tamil month of Thai, which so happened to be on my birthday, January 17th. Before I came to Malaysia, as I was researching the culture and celebrations, Thaipusam was one that interested me the most. I was really hoping that I would get the chance to experience, so when my chapter president said that she would take us to her temple I was ecstatic. The festival commemorates when Parvati gave Murugan a "Vel Spear" so that he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. People will pray on this to to the Lord Murugan, the the Tamil Lord of war. He vanquishes all evils so on this day people will pray to him to destroy evils in their lives. They will carry with them a "Kavadi" which symbolizes a burden. Usually it will be a milk pot and they will have to carry this on top of there head to the temple. They will go barefoot and have to walk a long distance. Others will pierce there cheeks or tongue along with carrying the milk pot.
     Those who pierce have to fast for approximately 48 days before Thaipusam. They will eat nothing but vegetarian food when the sun is down and fast for the whole day. This is to prepare themselves. When they are about to get pierced some will go into a trance. They will not feel a thing and will even start to dance or move there heads to a beat. If they have fasted properly they will not bleed.
     Others will have very big kavadi's they will carry by putting it over there body and piercing there back with small hooks. These are very heavy and they still need to put a milk pot on them. These will be made and decorated by the person carrying it. These kavadi's can be very colorful and before they go they will spin around with them and dance, making for a spectacular view. There are others who will have hooks on their backs with ropes attached. On the other end of the ropes will be a person pulling on them while they walk ahead, These are one of the scariest to me because it looks like they will just pull the skin right off their backs.
    Thaipusam is celebrated in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar. The largest Thaipusam celebration in Malaysia is in Batu Caves, where millions of devotees and tourists will gather. In Batu Caves they will have to carry the Kavadi's 15 km starting from KL all the way to the caves and climb 272 steps to leave the kavadi and milk pot to the hige statue of the Lord Murugan.

Our Henna :) The peacock is very important in Thaipusam because it is the vehicle of Lord Murugan

Kavadi's adorned with peacock feathers and flowers 

This couple are carrying their baby, they are giving thanks for their new born

Exchange students of Johor with our Indian guide

One of the biggest piercings I saw

"Just here, texting with an arrow piercing my cheeks, no big deal"