CABRAMATTA MOON FESTIVAL 2009

Yesterday, Cabramatta was deserted, I guess everyone is waiting for today! The Vietnamese have always been a celebrating and group sort of culture so it shouldn't surprise anyone we're expecting around 60,000 people for our Moon Festival event.

The actual date for 2009, based on the lunar calendar, is actually 3rd October, so this celebration is early.  It won't stop the crowd though, believe me.

The stalls etc are probably not that different from other street festivals, but the main reason for coming, I reckon is because it's a chance to celebrate our culture and traditions. The parents like it for that, and the children, well it's fun and there are rides and lots of colour.

Make sure you check out all the stalls, one of my favourites (don't know if they'll be there this year) is a vegetarian stall run by a local Buddhist temple to raise funds - you'll have to eat here, it's for a good cause and the food is great. They started to do this years ago, but underestimated the crowd so badly that they ran out of food by 2pm! They should know what to expect now.

Between noon and 4pm are the craziest times where you can barely move up or down John street.

Here's a few of my recommendations:

- a great gang of young Viet-Australians who will promote their Vietlish project at the festival
- SBS radio's Vietnamese program will be broadcasting live from 7pm. I'm always amazed by how many people come out to watch an 'audio' based program
- Buy/eat a moon cake (actually 1/8th of a moon cake - they're rich)

Cabramatta hosts Australia's largest Moon Festival celebration, which is the second most popular in the Asian calendar.  It's run by the council and is called, typically frankly, Cabramatta Moon Festival.

Sadly I'll have to miss Moon Festival this year for a whole range of reasons including to spend a day with my partner before he flies off later today to speak at the Australian Book Association's bookseller's conference in Brisbane.

COFA Presentation

I'm giving a presentation to post gradudate students at the University of NSW's College of Fine Arts (COFA) tomorrow on Engaging Communities.

Very exciting because I seem to have all the right resources and info to do it.  The students are apparently very keen.

If the students are smart, they can get a sneak preview here!

New Thang Ngo PR Pic!

Doing a double page article with Marketing Magazine that's coming out soon so had to get a publicity shot this month... as with most people, I'm never happy with my pics.

These are ok though!

SYDNEY DUST STORM

Thanh Mai: my current favourite Vietnamese restaurant

Went to dinner at Thanh Mai in Canley Heights after a long absence.  Not that I don't want to go there, but they are always so busy and I don't have time to queue.  I was surprised that on a Sunday night we could get in without booking.  We went there with Walter and his parents.

Ordered three of my favourite dishes canh chua ga (sour soup, chicken), ga rang (fried chicken) and goi tom (salad with prawn and lotus shoots).

Buddha Vairochana's visualisation for Wisdom

My card today from Lillian Too's set of Buddha Cards, says:

Vairochana gives us the potential to develop balance and wisdom, which results from overcoming ignorance.

Before you begin Buddha Vairochana's visualisation, pruify your mind by performing the preliminary meditation below:

First, feel that your mind purifies into emptiness.  Your mind, understanding this emptiness, then transforms into Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, with one face, two arms, and a gold-coloured body.  His face is entremely beautiful, with a loving smile and compassionate eye.  Every second, every pore of his holy body radiates numberless buddhas to sentient beings, liberating them from suffereing and bring them to liberation and enlightenment.

Chant Guru Shakyamuni's mantra:

TAYATA OM MUNE, MUNE
MAHA MUNEYE SOHA

Now practice Vairochana's visualisation: visualise that from Buddha Vaairochana come nectar beams, purifying ignorance, the root of samsara: ignorance of ultimate nature, not knowing what is right or wrong.  Sufferings continue for eons until one removes the root of suffering, which is ignorance.  Nectar beams purify all ignorance; everyone receives the mirror-like transcendental wisdom, and becomes enlightened in the form of Buddha Vairochana.

Thang Ngo: Proof that dreams come true

 Fairfield Advance, 9 September 2009
By Laura Trieste 

Thang Ngo has travelled a long way to get to Cabramatta.

Now a national manager at SBS, and formerly a councillor at Fairfield City Council, as a young teen growing up in Penrith he never thought he would be where he is today.

“Our dream for me was to become a bank clerk,” Mr Ngo said.

“That’s what my high school career adviser said I can do.”

Mr Ngo’s family escaped Vietnam in 1975, settling in Penrith. Mr Ngo, then 10, struggled to fit in with other school kids.

“I wasn’t really bullied but I was teased heaps - kids are kids,” he said.

Despite the difficulties, Mr Ngo said he was thankful for what the times had taught him.

“It was then I learnt that I really needed to be strong,” he said.

“I focused on finding my similarities with everyone rather than the differences.”

After finishing high school, Mr Ngo moved to Bossley Park and found he felt he “belonged” in the Fairfield region.

“No one’s got a chip on their shoulder here, everyone treats everyone equally,” the now Cabramatta resident said.

Mr Ngo’s career as a Fairfield councillor came by accident.

The opportunity sprung from his determination to stop the Huyen Quan Temple in Bankstown from shutting down in 1998.

“We fought council and won but the monk from the temple said I should run for council just to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Mr Ngo said.

“I only became a councillor by accident but then I had some unfinished business.”

That unfinished business kept him busy until last year when he made the switch to national manager of language at SBS.

But no matter where life takes him, Mr Ngo is sure he will always come back to Cabramatta.

“Once you’ve found a place that feels right then there’s no reason to leave it,” he said.

“What I hope people understand is that the world is limitless. Just because you start from the bottom doesn’t mean you can’t have dreams.”

Thang Ngo also writes a blog for Fairfield Advance.

Shopping by colour: dress making material

Food might be top of mind when you think of of Cabramatta, but shopping comes a close second.  When it comes to shopping, dress making material should be up there.

Over the years, it's amazing how the 'stock' has changed to cater to the shopping community.  Of course the rayon and traditional designs that are used to make Vietnamese Ao Dai are still sold, but many muslims women also shop in Cabra for material to make their burqa/burka, hijab.  And just today, while shopping with our friend Verushka Darling, I noticed the shops are now catering for Islander communities too now, as you can see below.

And what was gorgeous Verushka up to?  She was getting pink material (lots of different types) for a charity show she'll be doing in Hong Kong later this month.  She's on the right below and yep, there's a sneak peak at something she'll be wearing!

Shopping by colour

Walter took us to a new fabulousness shop in Cabramatta today, which, well words can't describe.  It's new and in a relatively quiet part of town.  We were the only customers there and there seemed to be five staff following us around being overly helpful.

The shops concept started out as a buddhist supplies shop with incense, paper offerings, statues and shrines.  But seemed to have expanded to include all things colourful and plastic; they stock the most realistic and expansive range of platic fruits and flowers, even exotic things like bitter melon, guava, asian orange, hand bananas, and I can't even name all the flowers!

 

But the fabulousness doesn't end there, they seem to also have branched out into Asian wedding supplies, like paper cut of double happiness and other gaudy decorations. 

And to top it all off, I found a paper mache dragon head. 

It's now firmly my favourite new shop in Cabramatta.

MOON FESTIVAL & MOON CAKES

 

It won't be long before Moon Festival and of course Moon Cakes comes around and this year,I've noticed several particularly attractively packaged boxes.

Gone are the days when they four square cakes in a brightly coloured tin.  Now we're into all shapes and sizes, round, oblong, even ones which are packaged up in bento boxes!

And don't forget this year's biggest Moon Festival celebration will be held in Cabramatta on Sunday, 27th September.  We're expecting over 60,000 people.

Ong Tho Condensed Milk

Today, I was on a mission to buy 55 tins of condensed milk.  It's for a special, secret business - all will be revealled.  While most people know Carnation and Nestle condensed milk brands in Australia; for my purposes it had to be Longevity - Ong Tho brand.

I thought I'd have trouble finding it in Cabramatta, but I should have known better, the first shop I came to had literall pallets of the stuff!

2009 Blake Prize for religious art

Saw the Blake Prize exhibition at the National Art School Library, Darlinghurst.  One of my favourites was "Palace of Kuan Yin".  You know from previous posts how I love all depictions of this Buddhist deity.

The pic below obviously doesn't do it justice.  The rays radiating from Kuan Yin is reminds me of chinese beads, but on closer inspection, they are holes burnt through the canvas.  Stunning.

Angel Service: Father's Day

You've heard me mention Angel Service before.  Basically it's a wonderful community of open minded people, each earning to live and learn.

Today, on the eve of Father's Day we looked at what a Father means to us and reflected on regeneration.  In tribute, we planted wheat seeds which will bring life in the future.  Julian, our Angel Service leader will tend the seeds and we'll get to see it grow each week.