Happy Wesak Day!

Hey, Happy Wesak Day everyone. Big celebration day today for Buddha's birthday, Friends invited us to watch the celebration with them and get some dinner beforehand, at Kapitans! The day began very lazy, since Rox and Brenna had the day off, we ate a relaxing breakfast (I LOVE coconut milk on cereal, and in oatmeal, and just cold right out of the box). We spent the morning getting some stuff done around the condo, and then headed for lunch at Chili's (ok I hate Chili's for anything, garbage processed crap, but we do have Brenna and although she ate duck last night, and her tastes are changing, she does need that hamburger fix now and again, I think we all do. Anyway, after that it was up to Parkson for some needed kitchen supplies and to Wilson's (the drug store, not the volleyball or the company that makes him) for some real "Tiger Balm" and an Ice pack...I really need one, stupid hamstring. Parkson was necessary because we cant run our ice maker anymore without flooding the kitchen, you see the last time that we had that bad leak, it was from the feed for the ice maker, the solution to fix it was just to leave it without being hooked up, so it still is not hooked up, and unless we want to wait out another plumber, we need to come up with an alternative, so Ice Trays it is, Roxanne likes ice in her drinks! I also needed another bottle for my Kombucha, I am up to brewing almost 6 liters at a time, and it seems to be getting better as well, last batch was the best I have brewed so far. We also needed envelopes. Boring stuff yes...Ok so we dropped off our stuff and relaxed a bit, watched the monsoon come in across the mountains, and then headed down to Kapitans to meet our friends; Simon, Jo and their two sons Oliver and the baby Sami. Brenna always has such fun with Oliver, we were hoping that she would watch the parade if Ob did, but instead she found a dog to play with and she and Ob ran around (it was good for her though)

The Wesak parade was really cool, lots of music and chanting, some really cool floats and the majority of the rain held off until the end. We also got some small Buddhist flags, and the kids got candy. As one of the last floats went by i went out into the street to get a blessing from the monks. really cool how people here embrace the many cultures that exist!! here are a few pictures from the parade.

An interesting tidbit that we learned tonight, in Buddhism, a Swastika represents resignation. It is usually found in the images of Buddha on his chest, palms, soles of feet. It is called the WAN symbol in Chinese and MAN in Japanese. The word Swastika is derived from the Sanskrit and means, "conducive to well- being". S-vasti in Sanskrit is translated as, "It is well".
The Swastika represents the Heart of the Buddha Shakyamuni, resignation of spirit, all happiness that humanity desires, mind, infinity, all, many, 10,000. The Germans actually reversed it for their symbol, and the floats tonight were decorated with the correct symbol...little strange to see it adorn  a float for such a happy occasion, until you know the history of the symbol. We had a blast and really felt a part of the community tonight. Brenna got some time with her friend, it was a good night and a good day in Penang. Well I think that is it for today you all, have a good night!