Wish upon a river...

23/2 (Wed) was the last day of Chinese New Year. I’m unaware of what people usually do to mark this day, but I did something crazy on this day. Yes, as the title goes… I wished upon a river, not the stars...

There is a Chinese belief (apparently practiced in Penang) that a single woman’s wish for a husband will be answered if she throws mandarin oranges into the river on the 15th day of CNY. And I did just that, together with 4 other girlfriends. Yes, we are crazy, some will consider us desperate, but hey, who doesn’t want to get a good husband unless you plan to be a spinster, nun or lesbian (er, think lesbians would still want to have a good “husband” too?)

Anyway, I’m not embarrassed to have done that. I feel there’s nothing wrong in falling back on beliefs & superstitions for just that extra bit of hope. Nobody knows the chances of it coming true but we’d compare “results” by end of this year (^-^)

My sis wished for her bf to be slimmer…not sure about other wishes she didn’t mention. Her friend’s friend wished to be together with either her ex-bf or new “target”, we weren’t sure. But she pinned a pic of herself & that of her new target on the oranges before throwing. My sister’s friend was the funniest. She didn’t have anyone she liked in mind. So she was just simply wishing w/o a specific target. And guess what? She wrote down a list of 52 criteria her future husband has to meet! All of us helped her to think of the criteria over dinner, in addition to those she had thot of last week. And she pinned the list onto the oranges before throwing. The oranges were all covered by the list…was quite a funny sight.

We were along the Singapore River, near Clarke Quay. My sister’s friends threw it near the G-max area while we kept a look out for them coz that place’s actually quite crowded. With so many people walking past, my sis, my friend & I just couldn’t get into the mood to throw. So we walked further down, past Liang Court to a quieter area. There, my sister threw the oranges quickly & went to join her friends, leaving just my friend & I there, trying to get into the mood. Haha…seems like we are really getting too “into the belief”. I made some brief wishes, the basic standard wishes lah… then threw the oranges & went to join the rest. My friend was still there… yet to throw…After she was finally done with it, we went home. I didn't ask about her wishes coz she seemed quite troubled over some relationship problems.

That's the annual "orange ritual" I've done twice so far. Hope I don't have to think of doing it again next year!