Ah Kung, Grandpa's 71st birthday.

Grandpa's 71st birthday

This was a very formal event. Here he is wearing the formal attire of a royal official of the Ming Dynasty. It was a black silk top on top of a black silk gown.

Mum made his cake. An aunt brought some red Chinese cutting of auspicious words. Making it a perfect fusion of East and West. For breakfast, all of us were served with sweet long noodles. yes, you read it right, the sweetness signifying a sweet life, and long noodles for long life to all who ate this noodles.

We were very proud of mum, she is at the right hand corner. Mum was one of the early Sibu ladies who made western cakes. She learned if from the wives of Dad's English bosses. To this day, I haven't tasted a cake that is more delicious pure butter full of eggs cake.

There was great feasting, and hundreds of guest were invited. My dad told me that at the birthday of a very healthy and successful person, people like to come to these parties. Some even gate crash. They believe in taking away a bit of the luck of this birthday boy. They will take away uneaten food to share with their family at home.

Vice versa, if the birthday person was a sickly person, people will avoid going to the party. It is seen as taken home the bad luck of the sick person.

Having just written a blog post about the sweet noodles, and my confession, I repost my Ah Kung's birthday.

Photo from Roger Tay, sweet noodles. My Ah Kung's noodles had no eggs.

http://annkitsuet-chinchan.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/sweet-birthday-noodles.html