Chap Goh Meh Celebration

Chap Goh Meh (literally means the fifteenth night) marks the end of the Lunar New Year Celebration and is also known as the Chinese Valentines Day. Since both Chinese New Year and Valentines Day fell on the same day (14th Feb), some may not have celebrated it, so Chap Goh Meh, which is on 28th Feb this year, is the same but, actually, not entirely the same.

See, on the normal VDay, usually 2 person ( a couple ) celebrate together; and singles will sulk at home lol.. But during the Chinese VDay, alot of people celebrate together, and families would also have a reunion dinner. Even for the singles, there’s a tradition where they gather and throw mandarin oranges into the sea in hopes that their future spouse will pick it up. This tradition is said to be originated from Penang, is it true ? Well anyway, to join the fun we googled and found out a couple few places to go during Chap Goh Meh. Tasik Taman Jaya in Petaling Jaya was one of them. It was actually our first time celebrating it so we weren’t quite sure what to expect..

 

We arrived at 10pm ish and we see alot of people walking out so we though maybe  there wouldn’t be so much people but boy oh boy, there are also alot of people walking into the park as well!!

 

The people gathered mainly around the lake/ pond to either throw mandarin oranges or pick them up. Before this I though, ok just throw an orange and that’s it. But after googling, I found out that, in modern times, people actually write their name and phone numbers on it. Girls would write on mandarin oranges and guys would write on banana. Hrmmm ok so to go with the flow, and for funs’ sake we wrote as well

 

 

There were people picking up oranges near to the edge of the water with fishnet lookalike thingy.. I’m guessing they pick out, write numbers then probably pass on to someone else or throw back into the water lol.. and continue doing the same till he has enough numbers wtf

Then on the way back, we saw people putting up these huge lanterns. Well I think these lanterns are illegal ? cause they might fall and drop on someone’s roof.. But oh well, aren’t fireworks illegal anyway ? wtf

I’m guessing its a homemade lantern as it’s a little smaller than the ones I see elsewhere (Eh wait, is it illegal or not??) These lanterns works like hot air balloon..

At first it dropped on the floor but actually u’re suppose to put it on the floor so the air wouldn’t escape from the bottom. Right ?

Ah but alas after sufficient hot air in the lantern, it flew up itself and everyone there cheered! Oh so happy..

Well it’s pretty much an interesting place to be for Chap Goh Meh. It looked like other celebrations (such as Christmas eve or new years eve) and just beware there are ALOT of people!!