(Continued from Lên Đồng 5: Possession of the Frightful Kind) In my previous posting, Lên Đồng 5: Possession of the Frightful Kind, I talked about the fact that possessions occurred in all areas of the world, to all groups of people, from all walks of life. I also said I was going to talk about the... Continue Reading →
Tết Nguyên Đán. What in heck does that even mean? When I was a kid, I knew that Tết meant New Year (well, it actually means something far more significant, but we'll get to that in a minute), but I had no idea what Nguyên Đán meant. Nowadays, it's easy to find out, with the advent of... Continue Reading →
Tea has been a part of ancient Asia for a very long time. We know this because back in ancient times, Gramps (aka Shennong) had taken a trip to the Southern region where his mother lived. Along the way, it is said that some sort of leaves fell into a pot of water his people... Continue Reading →
Every culture around the world has a Great Deluge or Great Flood tale. For the Europeans, it was Noah's Flood and for the Hindus, it was the manvantara-sandhya. The Mesopotamians have their own flood stories that are very similar to the Native Americans in North America's recounting of a Great Flood. There is also the... Continue Reading →
Lì Xì Cats Every year, right around this time, I buy red lì xì money envelopes that have the corresponding animal to the year I'm in and give them out to all the little kids I know. Before you think that is extremely wasteful, I will hasten to assure you that the envelopes only contain a few... Continue Reading →
The Seven Necessities In ancient Viet culture, there is a very famous old saying: Quan môn thất kiện sự, sài, mễ, du, diêm, tương, thố, trà” When translated, it means, "The seven necessities to begin a day: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea." It was very underwhelming to be honest. What in... Continue Reading →
I have a very ancient multi-millennial ancestral grandpa. His name is Khương Thạch Niên (姜石年). Most folks know him as the farmer god. Yes. THAT farmer god known as Thần Nông (aka Shennong), the same one who gave us tea (among other things). Now, I don't like people who falsely claim famous relatives just to... Continue Reading →
(Continued from Ancient Viet 2: Sunken Paradise) As a young Viet-American child growing up smack dab in the middle of the US (New Orleans no less), I quite often identified with the Vietnamese/Chinese community living in and around the south because there weren't really that many of us Asians in that part of the neighborhood... Continue Reading →
(Continued from Au Revoir, Kitchen God) So, it's after midnight and my work with the Kitchen god is done, even though the rain never let up. I was going to edit the previous post to show photos of the preparations that I made, but I decided to create a second post because there was so... Continue Reading →
Welp. It's that time of the year again, when I send off ye merry gentle kitchen gods to the sky so they can pay homage to the Sky Lord. This is not a roaming date. It is fixed in stone (or at least renewable bamboo alternative). On the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month... Continue Reading →
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