Mid-Autumn Festival: A Dentistry Tradition

Traditions in dentistry are starting to form, I think. The Mid-Autumn festival could very well be a strong dentistry tradition for years to come. It was previously celebrated by individual classes but on Tuesday, the entire dentistry bunch came out for a night of tanglung fun.

The juniors were setting up the lanterns.

They even hung it on a long wire. I’m quite surprised that they managed to get permission to hold the event near the clock tower.

Zhu Zen’s all ready to hold some lanterns.

We were helping out by lighting the lanterns.

I do prefer the glass paper lanterns as compared to the traditional ones.

One of the many many class photos.:)

I think this is a mixture of batch 1 and 2 with our dean and oral anatomy professor.

I bought sparklers that night. 🙂 Glad it made everyone happy in a way.

Half a heart… a bit paiseh to keep doing something like that hence the many unsuccessful attempts.

I then tried to get my classmates to get in on the fun. 🙂 I wish we spent more time camwhoring with the sparklers. 🙂 Happy times.

The colours turned out to be pretty nice too! When I was younger, these simpler sparklers weren’t that fun as compared to the loud crackers. It’s only when you’re older do you realise the many benefits of these sparklers. Aesthetics have become more important than the destructive ones. 🙂

This looks like a dragon!

l-r: Cze-Yin, Narjit, Lie Yuen, Me. Actually it’s a photo with our dean, but I don’t think he would appreciate seeing a clear photo of himself on my blog. 🙂 I do look nice here, don’t I? Not too fat, not too mata-sepet, not too messy. Ahh..contented.

That’s Zi Wei with her other Year 1 classmates. Glad that everyone was enjoying themselves with the sparklers too!

Pity that the smoke from the sparklers had to go spoil the photo.

The Year 1 bunch. They seem like a very united group. 🙂 Our class looks so small compared to theirs’.

They even brought Fluorobands!(glow sticks?) I was reading in some Wiki entry that people take glow sticks out to play during the Mid-Autumn festival. Was I too old when this tradition was formed??

l-r: Venga, Pei Zhi, Xin Yi, Sock Nee, Angela, Praveena, Josiah, Jaya.

Nien wanted a photo with her housemates.
l-r: Nien, Poh Yee, Sock Nee, Zhu Zen

Another housemates’ photo!
l-r: Maxis, Ah Thong, Ee Chean, Chwan Horng.

Oh yay!! I didn’t realise I had a class photo. Some more I’m inside! What a refreshing change. 😀

l-r: Lie Yuen, Me, Nien.

Myself and Felicia.(I hope this is your name?? Sorry babes, I’m bad with names. 🙁 )

After that, the hundred over of us made our way to the sports complex about a 15 minutes walk away from where we were. It was beautiful as all you could see was a trail of colourful lights bobbing along.

One of the highlights of the night was sending up the Kong Ming lanterns. People would usually write wishes on the lanterns or even touch the lanterns for good luck in the romance department. One of the juniors sponsored the lanterns. If I’m not mistaken, she spent about RM300 on the lanterns, but I could be wrong. I on the other hand sponsored RM60 for whatever sparkly things that were there that night. Another RM60 for some snacks and drinks but that’s okay as some of my classmates chipped in for it. Next year really must form committee already if they are serious about turning this into a tradition.

Traditionally, the Kong Ming lantern is made out of rice paper around a bamboo frame. Combustible material like petroleum or kerosene is placed at the base of the lantern. For the base, we used something like an aluminium tray to burn the wad of stuff doused in kerosene/petroleum. I’m not really sure exactly what they used that night.

Ei Leng and myself. My double chin has been given a month’s notice to move out. No rice for me.

l-r: Samuel, Melvin, Me, Narjit.

Gerviene, the silly little junior showing us her “un-hot” lantern. The glow stick actually looked quite nice inside her lantern.

Gerviene and Andy really berbodohing.

Suda and myself. My eyes moved out last month.

A bunch of juniors from Year 2!

L-r: Stephanie, Melvin, Ken, I’m sorry I forgot!, Charis.

Lie Yuen and I, trying very hard to take a night shot.

Kenneth and Me. You looked like you were holding a wand, Kenneth!

Tee Lun and me! Was I crouching or is he really that tall!?

Adrian and his nose digger.

A crowd of people nearby were relighting their candles.

Each batch was given one Kong Ming lantern. Andy was the expert in our group. Hehehe.

The BDS ghosts.

See all the nosey and curious faces. 😀

Awww… Melvin looked sad here! I think it was because he didn’t know how to set up the Kong Ming lantern. Some more must pose with a monyet lantern.

Phebe and myself!

Cassandra and myself. She looks so happy lah! I must practise looking this happy as well.

Andy and Ah Thong were pretending to be student protesters on the streets.

The other batches gathering around their lanterns.

Bala and myself.

L-r: Zhu Zen, Cze-Yin, Poh Yee and Lie Yuen.

Tucking the tray onto the base of the lantern.

Hehe, don’t we all enjoy a good bout of camwhoring..:)

l-r: Ei Leng, Kelvin(his skin is soooooooooooo freaking smooth. I think he has got the smoothest skin in the whole of dentistry) and Gabrielle.

I’m so proud of myself as I can actually read those chinese words. Wahahhaa.

Hua.. Hau…Yuet…Yuen! Clever, Jolene! *scratches ears*

And up it went. I’ve never seen a Kong Ming lantern before so it was a surreal experience for me. Just give me glitter, fire, lights..and I’m one happy camper.

See the lantern taking off?

Lie Yuen and Cze-Yin looking pretty with the extremely cute coloured lanterns. I also want that colour….:(

The two lanterns rose into the sky together.

Everybody, including myself, was staring at the lanterns in awe.

Then Baja Hitam came to save the day. yay.

I love this photo! It’s like a fairy taking off into the night.

Higher and higher..

Another lantern being sent up.

You can see that the lantern has swelled up relatively due to the burning fuel.

Everyone was chanting, “Good luck come!”

Wonder I will make many many mini Kong Ming lanterns and release them in an open field. 🙂 And take many beautiful photos!

Here’s a video of us letting go a Kong Ming lantern and also of us playing sparklers.

Inspired by the Kong Ming lantern, I wrote a poem and sent it in as a blog entry to R.age. I really like it. 🙂 Also because I was so inspired by the images i found while searching for Kong Ming lantern on Flickr.

Sky Lantern

A lone candle sits in an empty tin,
Flickering to the rhythm of the blowing wind,
Watching the candlelight dim to a finish,
I close my eyes to make a wish.

Running my fingers down the bamboo frame,
Tracing the red characters, each side’s the same,
On the ricepaper, I write your name,
Miles away, would you do the same?

A dozen lanterns glow in the distance,
Like fireflies coming out to dance,
I lose myself in the starlit sky,
Somewhere out there a star would die.

If I send a lantern up tonight,
Will it make everything all right?
Will it replace the dying star?
Sometimes I wish you were not so far.

A fire starts within the cheering crowd,
The rice paper is becoming very taut.
The white lantern reflects in my eyes,
Tilting left and right, undecided to fly.

A breeze comes by and takes it along,
And like the notes to a sad sad song,
The white lanterns rise to the sky,
Playing the melody of a wistful sigh.

Take with you a piece of a yearning heart,
Trusted upon you to play your part,
To realise a wish on a hope on a dream,
Carried away on a glowing floating stream.

—

The glow sticks proved to be similiar to wands so we did what any normal person growing up in this era would do – pretend to be Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.

Dumbledore’s army.

LOL I don’t know if it’s obvious enough, but if you can see, we were supposedly doing the “Expelliarmus!” charm. Note the green wand flying off my hand.

Don’t know what this photo is about but I like my legs here. 😀

We had many yam seng sessions. -_-

Cheers!

And then we resumed playing Harry Potter.

We thought it might look prettier with sparklers.

Chee Wen then came to layan us. See his stance..? We suspect that he reads Harry Potter one lorh. (Chee Wen seems like a very unlikely Harry Potter fan, hence the reason it’s funny. hahaha)

Wah sei, the action gets thicker.

Anybody remembers the Pimptress?

The juniors even decided to roast marshmallows. Semangat.

Since most of us seniors live off campus, we decided to head to a nearby playground in our housing area to while away the night. Maxis came up with a few games for us to play.

Sock Nee and Xin Yi having a go on the swings.

We played a scissors, paper, stone game that consisted of painful whacking for the losing team.

See how Lie Yuen is grabbing her bum in pain?

Then another game was to hold your candle and make sure that it doesn’t get blown out by the other team. Since the wax was dripping all over our fingers, it was quite stressful. Ee Chean made me laugh like a hyena when he said this, “TEK LAP! I likeeeee.” with a voice that Austin Powers would use. Tek Lap means Dripping Wax. It’s usually an S&M term. Hehehe.

The year 2 juniors joined us after that. I had fun giving them hard whacks with the newspapers during the paper, scissors, stone game.

See the hand on the mouth? Hahaha.

Bend over!

Like in jail like that. Hahaha.

Poh Yee was freaking out.

Shing Yin and Samantha looks damn adorable here.

The monster is here. I’m like, the bionic woman. Full of unnecessary strength.

What night would be complete without a group photo?:D

Let’s all point at the moon and have our ears plucked off the sides off our head. Or was it the ears going black? I can’t remember the grandmother’s saying.

Andy was as usual, monkeying around.

l-r: Xin Yi, Pei Zhi, Angela and Zhu Zen crowding around the bottom of the slide.

I directed the two of them to pose like this. It would come in handy when they plan to do their wedding dinner slideshow. Hehehe.

Steven and Lie Yuen.

Nien and Poh Yee.

This was courtesy of my Gorilla Pod, hooked onto a pole in front of us. Pretty good eh?

Us girls getting ready for a group photo. I like this photo because it’s pretty candid.

Hiau por sign!

The boys came up with a new game. Monkey bar wrestling. -_-

Jimmy loses!

The guys’ very unique group photo. Hahahha see the poles curving towards Andy? Heavy lah you Andy!

Andy was trying to be sexy.

On Wednesday night, our dean treated the performers and the dental dinner committee members to dinner. So it was another excuse for a gathering to happen. Hehe. It seems as if we are really free, eh? Must start concentrating on the academic side of dentistry. T_T

Big group photo.

And yes, yam seng again. 😀

Aww, Melvin looks good with my pink fluffy handbag.:D It matches his pink shirt.

I was going trigger happy(well, don’t I always) and snapped this photo! This is what I see on the way to university! One day, Lie Yuen and I get out of the car and explore the area for more photo opportunities. It’s such a serene way to start a day!

With old shop houses lining both sides of the roads and part of Gunung Jerai seen in the distance.

Camwhoring with the pretty sliding shutters. Old but colourful in their own melancholic way.

We huddled around my laptop excitedly on Thursday night as I’ve finally managed to download the first episode of Heroes Season 2! It hasn’t lost its magic! Next up would be a Desperate Housewives gathering. Heh.

By the way, I thought that I should introduce my Good Luck Tofu. When I spoke to it in the dark asking it to bring my electricity and internet back(to make Lie Yuen laugh lah, you think I’m such a retard meh?), all of it came back the next day! I brought it along to the hair salon and it gave me great hair for the dental dinner. *heart* This is the mini version of the tofu that I made Chee Kiang buy back for me from Vivocity. They’ve got a huge one in Vivocity, like a cushion to seat on. Very very cute. This is the first time I’ve thought about a soft toy for days on end after seeing it in the shop. I think I reached childhood a little too late.

Oh, oh!! I’ve purchased a Flickr Pro account! No more stressing out on images in my blog!!!