Leap month of the Lunar Calendar

Well, if you are Chinese, you would have noticed that this month is again the 5th month in the Chinese calendar. This is the leap month which happens once every 3 years.

Few years back, when my belated father was first diagnosed with his illness, my mom and me went to consult a very reputable medium. According to the medium, in Chinese believe, during the leap month in Chinese calendar, if the elderly daughter or daughter-in-law cooks longevity noodles with red hard boil eggs, it will help increase the health and longevity of the elderly.

Initially, I thought this is just a say out / hear say thingy. Until one day while driving, I heard over the radio, a gold jewelry company actually advertise on the radio saying about this practice.

Then, last week, when I was at home, while we were chatting, my mom reminded me that this month is the lunar leap month. Then, this reminded me of what the medium had told and what I have heard over the radio.

I send a few SMSs to my brother to request if he can ask his wife (my mom's daughter-in-law) to cook for my mom, without much of hesitation, they agreed. So, yesterday, my brother and sister-in-law came over to my house and cook for my mom.

To my surprise, besides cooking also, my sister-in-law bought a gold pendant with a Chinese word "Longevity" for my mom. It made her so happy. When my mom shown it to me, you can see she is so proud of it and so happy to received it from my sister-in-law. It is not so much on how much the gold is worth, it is the sincere gift from a daughter-in-law to the mother-in-law. It had been quite a while I did not see the 'glow' on my mom's face. But I can tell you for sure, he face was 'shining' yesterday.

Well, from what I observe, perhaps the moral about this practice is just for some reunion and sincerity of the heart purpose. As we all know, in Chinese custom, daughter which had got married, is like a pail of water which have been splash out. The meaning is that it cannot be collected back.

Furthermore, last time, the daughter would have married so far away and it will take days or even months for them just to get home to visit their parents. I am sure the parents would have missed the daughter dearly, therefore, with just one visit once every 3 years to cook for the parents, having the meal together, it is kinda reunion for them, this is good enough to make them happy / cheerful. A cheer up mind and body will lead to better health and hence longevity. The elderly will also ensure that they will take good care of themselves to look forward for the next leap month in 3 years time to again able to see their daugthers and grand children again.

With the same token, if you notice that I had mentioned either daughter or daughter-in-law, perhaps last time, the use to me maids and kitchen helpers for the rich families, the daughter-in-law does not need to cook. In the modern context, most of the daughter-in-law will be working and will either have to depend on the mother-in-law to cook for them or the couple will be staying alone away from the parents-in-law.

Therefore, this teaching was used to test the cooking skills of the daughter-in-law. I am sure if someone cook for the first time, it will be a comedy event eating the stuffs which is either half cook or tasteless. I can imagine a the round table, there will be some jokes and talks and laughter's when the meal is served to the elderly. Hence, again, cheerful elderly will lead to health and hence longevity.

Therefore, next time when we (the younger generations) were told of some practices / believes, don't just reject it or push it away. Look at it from a different perspective. Sometimes, the old tradition practice is not totally baseless / superstitious. Perhaps try to do it for once and see the effect. Of course I am not asking you to be god to see thru the human body to see the it have increased the health / longevity, but observe the outcome of the action. I am sure you will notice the chain of effect and from there we can deduce from there if the practice is logical or not.