la femme libre ..

the free woman..

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it was finally, the end of the fifteen days of the lunar new year yesterday.

on the fifteenth day, we of chinese descendent call it the 'chap goh meh' here in Malaysia.
it was brought to my attention by one article on The Star online (Cupid gets three chances), of how we of the chinese descent celebrate 'Valentine's Day' a total of three times a year.

needless to say, Chap Goh Meh, is one of the three.

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"... the practice of tossing Mandarin oranges is uniquely Malaysian. To be precise, it originated in Penang where unmarried women would gather at the seaside on the night of Chap Goh Mei. There, they would toss oranges into the sea, hoping the fruits would be picked up by eligible young men who would then become their husbands.
In China and Taiwan, the 15th day of the new lunar year is also known as the lantern festival, and streets and temples there would be decorated with giant paper lanterns.
In the old days when girls were confined to their chambers, Chap Goh Meh offered them an opportunity to go out to see the outside world – and to be seen by eligible young men in search of potential partners..."

~Yum Cha by Lee YP (Sunday, Feb28)

i couldnt help but noticed the sentence in blue.

oh, how blue indeed.

to have but only ONE day out of an entire year to be able to wander out of the confines of their chamber?

well, yes, i bet these young ladies were the well off types where their days were occupied with nothing but perfecting their skills at chinese Qins and silk embroideries of chinese ducks. and the only objective of their existence? to marry off young into an equally if not better off household.

my, my, .. how far we've came since then! (i'm glad.)

but then again, just how far are we from then?

as you ponder along, if you would, with me, for a little longer on this statement, .. it turns, quite sneakily, into a Question.

the norms of a society.

the norms may change.

like.. females now are no longer forbidden to travel alone on their own (yes, things were That barbaric back then).

so may a society of human dwellings.

like.. a more civilised society now is aware that females too, contribute much to the growth and development of a nation.

but not, The Norms of a Society.

when both comes together, no amount of progress or civilisation would prove good enough to change how a current society would view what it deems as the current norm of practice.

like.. "the current middle class norm of two children per family." (to make this sound less feminist..)

that 'acceptable' number of child per family changes every decade or so.

but not the norm that corelates with that decade.

so, how far have we progressed now really, women? ladies?

to the extent that we could defy the current norms of the current society?

i do not think so.

heck! why would anyone want to do that, right? it's not normal!

* * *

~went 'borderless' (again) on a working wednesday.. set free by none other than yours truly.

every seventeenth step had seemed Godsent.

the area deserted, save for some tourists (even with a camera, i do not consider myself as one).

@Batu Caves : 24 Feb, 2010 - Wed.

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not exactly the normal idea of a walk in the park.. but still, Serenity with a bucketload of sweat. what better combination than that?

another itch scratched...