Food - from here and for beyond

Foods from here - Yesterday I picked up some groceries including a juice with 16 vegatables and fruits. I was a V-8 knockoff. It isn't as bad as the color suggests, but I won't buy it again. In preparation for the next Chinese holiday I bought a moon cake (I have eaten most of it so no picture). I had soup at dinner - vegetables and odds and ends of meat - perhaps more interesting that the soup is the cutlerly - I can manage reasonably well with chopsticks, but assume that I am given a fork and spoon by stall owners as a welcoming gesture of cultural awareness. (See what 2 months here does to how you interpret events.)

Foods for beyond - Yesterday was the first time I saw much evidence of the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts close to campus. I was informed by my Chinese scholar friend that it is a harvest festival - a point not made on the few web sites I visited. http://www.my-island-penang.com/Hungry-Ghost-Festival.htmlToday is the last day of the Feast of the Hungry Ghost - http://www.my-island-penang.com/Hungry-Ghost-Festival.html and http://www.malaysiasite.nl/hungryghosts.htm The feast lasts for the month of August - on visits to Georgetown throughout the month I would see fires burning. Families burn money and other paper objects a ghost needs in the afterlife. The burning joost sticks are larger than what I have seen, but the smoldering fire by the roadside is quite common. The other photo is of the area where the food offerings are left. There are people going in and out and praying - but to take a photo seemed intrustive. There was also a stage for a late night performance, but I decided not to hang around. There was also a fireworks display for Merdeka (Freedom) Day at midnight - I skipped that as well.