Are you a Night Person?
Are you a Day Person?
Or are you both?

Experience Singapore Literature is NLB’s initiative to create an accessible platform for the showcase of Singapore Literature. We believe that literature is best encountered and remembered through experience, and have adopted an experiential approach towards the delivery of this suite of programmes. With the theme ‘Uncovering Singapore’, discover and learn more about local literary content through a set of immersive experiences and inspirations.

Join us for a Symposium on 30 & 31 October! Forget about sitting and listening to boring discussions. We will be bringing you unique Experiences which are more exciting and on a bigger scale! As the name suggests, we want YOU to Experience literature. Come along and meet the ‘greats’ of the literary circles!

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Ok, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t the least bit thrilled when my friend Paul asked me to accompany him to the lantern event at Hua Song museum organised by NHB last Friday. Firstly it was a Friday nite, secondly, lanterns stopped having any effect on me after I turned 10 and thirdly, the whole event was held somewhere far away in Haw Par Villa (need I say more?). And oh yes, the weatherman also predicted rain.

But being the nice guy I was, and after a little bit of pestering from Paul, I finally relented. On one condition though – that I not be asked to carry a silly little lantern. I have a reputation you know?

We reached Hua Song museum at about 8pm not knowing what to expect really (at least I didn’t). Paul told me there was going to be food. Great, I thought, something to look forward to, since I was as hungry as that humongous tiger statue outside.

And speaking of tigers, I almost growled my head off when I saw the number of children running around the halls of the museum!

Hey! You didn’t tell me that there was gonna be noisy kids!! I lashed out.

Relax man, don’t get so angry, Paul said, while ripping the cellophane wrap off his lantern.

Great, I thought. Here I was, in some obscure dark place filled with noisy kids, lantern-lovin’ adults and a gazillion mooncakes on a Friday night. Plus, it was going to rain buckets soon. Oh nuts, I might as well just check myself into one of the 10 courts of hell that we passed along outside.

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If the 7th Month is the month for ghosts, then what is the 8th month for? Some might say it’s just as scary – or maybe even scarier. The 8th Month is the month for weddings! Chinatownboy talks about some of the traditions and superstitions associated with the 8th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

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We know that Deepavali is known as the Festival of Lights, and is celebrated every year around October or November by the Indian community. The Chinese celebrate another kind of festival of lights – well, lanterns actually. It’s the season for mooncakes and lanterns and there’s no better place for a light-up than in Chinatown. Chinatownboy writes about the street light-up in Chinatown and reflects how the celebration has changed today.

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Hi, I’m Dawn Farnham, author of two books of historical fiction based in Singapore, The Red Thread and The Shallow Seas, which are Book One and Book Two in a series. I am currently working on Book Three, The Hills of Singapore.

I love history and Singapore history has been my muse and inspiration for writing these books. I am a docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum and love to guide local history lovers and tourists around these two fabulous museums. the artifacts and stories in the  Peranakan Museum were  the impetus and inspiration for my first book, The Red Thread.

I wrote this book to bring the history of Singapore to a wider public in a fun and enjoyable way – through stories. Below is some information about these books which, if you love history, romance and a good story, I hope you will enjoy. Many of my readers have told me that, after reading them, they have gone on to revisit places and delve more deeply into the factual history of Singapore and that is wonderful.

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Like every HTV shoot, the team learns new things about our local heritage. Recently, we were invited by the Chinatown Business Association (CBA) to witness what goes on behind the scenes at one of our spookiest festivals – The Hungry Ghost Festival.

In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar marks the start of this occasion. It is said the gates of hell open and the dead roam the earth in search of food and entertainment. Throughout the month, offerings to appease the dead – from burning paper money, preparing spreads of food and organising performances – are arranged, in hope spirits will not disrupt the lives of the living world.

It is said when someone dies, he will have three souls and each would reside in three different places – his body, the ancestral tablet in his family hall and at the underworld for judgement. It takes one three years to cross the river of life – so if one has passed on at 75 years of age, his obituary would say 78 instead.

This is usually an inauspicious period and significant events such as weddings or shifting house is strongly discouraged, while doctors claim they see a 70% drop in surgeries during the month. Many believe that accidents are more prevalent during the seventh lunar month than anytime of the year. A quick glance at our daily newspapers and you’d find an unusually high number reports of car crashes or drownings.

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While the treats may look enticing, people know better than to try and claim some of these food for themselves – after all, they’re left as offerings to the dead in the current 7th month Hungry Ghost Festival. Besides food and entertainment, offerings in the form of (hell) money, paper cars, and even elaborate paper houses are left for the dead. They make the transition from the material world to the spirit world through fire, i.e. burning to a crisp.

Paper houses and offerings being sent off at the Hungry Ghost Festival. NAS photo.

If you wish to make an offering this month to a specific ancestor, how does one go about that? Photosophize has the answer – click here to find out and also view her nice collection of photos of the offerings and activities during this festival.

Something strange in your neighbourhood? Think you might need to call the Ghostbusters? If you’re getting a funny feeling that things are going ‘bump’ in the night – don’t worry, it’s probably some wandering spirit out for a frolic during the 7th month. During the Chinese 7th month festival, it is believed that the spirits of the dead are free to roam the earth and visit the living, who in turn take the opportunity to make offerings of food, gifts and entertainment to tide them until the next year.

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The topic title “Memory Aid for The Elderlies” and the photo of The Straits Times of June 3, 1953 headlined “The Big Jam After The Parade” does not appear to be related at first glance.

So what exactly am I blogging (or rather, rambling) about?

Please read on to find out.

For people like me who couldn’t read the fine print below the photo without a magnifying glass, here’s the photo caption:

“THE TIME IS 8.30 a.m. Singapore’s great Coronation Parade is over. And this is the scene as crowds swarm away from the Padang. From the belfry of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Straits Times chief cameraman, Leon Shiu Hung, took this graphic picture as the crowds mill past the City Hall and the Supreme Court, into High Street and towards the Anderson Bridge”.

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There’s something about National Day that always evokes a certain patriotism. The fluttering of our beloved flag in the gentle breeze, the city awash in colours of red and white. In the midst of the celebration, one can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia as you think back of how life has evolved in 44 years of nation building. As I walk past the gates of the old National Library on my daily journey, I have been trying to piece together the landscape of my neighbourhood.

It’s timely perhaps that OKTO will be screening Lost Images on Monday evening, 10 August at 9:30pm. Produced by The Moving Visuals Company, this documentary features the ‘lost images’ of Singapore and the region, captured through the eyes of Dr. Ivan Polunin from the 1950s to the 1970s.

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