Chinese opera originated from religious beliefs so you can often find street opera performed at the temples. They will do a reenactment of famous stories and tell them in celebration of ceratin gods. This opera was for the water god's birthday and this particualr temple in Singapore worships the water god. When we first arrived we went to the temple where people were passing out all kinds of goodies, red eggs being one of them. Red is considered good luck and the egg is a blessing for your family. I was first given one egg and then I was approched again and given a second egg, I told her I already had an egg but she said I needed two to bless my future twins! Everyone laughed at me when I quickly tried to put the second egg back on the tray! It was good fun though, at least I hope that was all it was!
Incense is everwhere when you go to a temple. I have always wondered what it was for and on this trip I was told that it is used for prayer. The smoke from the incense is used to carry their prayers up to their god. It helps their prayer to linger and rise to the ears of the gods. I thought that was interesting.
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