Abigail's One Month Celebration

In Malaysia it is customary for the chinese to celebrate a baby's one month 'birthday' by sending out red eggs, mung bean cakes (aka ang ku kueh) and tumeric chicken curry + rice to relatives and friends. These yummy goodies are ordered from shops that specialize in providing this service for one month celebrations. Because it is common for friends and family members to send gifts at the baby's birth, parents of the newborn send these boxes out that sort of work as a 'thank you' for your kind wishes and lovely gifts.

The one month celebration also known as 'full moon celebration' also signifies the end of the confinement period for the mommy and baby. Usually chinese women are confined to the home after delivery of the baby for a time a recuperation and healing. There are many taboos that accompany this confinement. I won't elaborate more about this but for details about confinement, click here.

For a detailed explanation about the chinese full moon celebration, click here.

For Abigails full moon celebration, with us being in Canberra where there are no chinese bakeries or shops that provide services for this custom, we decided to have an afternoon tea at our house and invite friends for a nice get together. We had cakes, biscuits, dips, chips, savoury cakes, curry puffs, muffins, tarts, chocolates, coffee and tea - simple nibbles to keep the afternoon lively. We also made red eggs and every one who came received a red egg to take home. This was a very interesting 'souvenir' to most of our Aussie friends and I am curious as to how many of our guests actually ate the red egg. Back in Malaysia I would always be the one to have first dibs on the red eggs. I love eggs.

Abigail was a very good girl all afternoon. I wasn't sure how she would handle the noise and having so many strangers around but she did very well. She was asleep for a bit and when she woke, many of our guests got to give her a cuddle. All up we had about 35 people in the house. Here are some pictures of the afternoon.

Baked cheese tarts

The simple spread we had - note the red eggs at the top right corner. Next to it are the pig trotters with black vinegar and ginger

Church friends

Alex's Uni friends

Liz carrying Abigail

The afternoon was a simple affair. The next big do will probably be for Abigail's first birthday in 11 months! Its amazing how time has just flown by. I guess its true when people say babies don't stay babies for very long. Treasure these moments because before you know it, they are toddlers - kids - teens - adults!

cheryl