Temple Food -- Longevity Buns, or Birthday Peach Buns

When we were young, whatever our elders said, we believed and we did as they said.

During my childhood, for example to explain this statement, we would ate longevity buns which were only made for temple worship and we were born into a Christian family. The buns looked so pretty to me. And as a child I often wondered if they could be eaten by mortals. But then elders' teachings and the fear instilled in me prevented me from even trying to eat one.

they were also placed in graves by non Christians, even in the Christian Methodist cemeteries. As my siblings and I paid respects to our dearly departed loved ones, we often wondered what a waste it was to place all those lovely food in the open. Later we heard many hungry children would go and steal them to eat. What a pity. This kind of incidents went on for years. And in fact, I heard from some friends recently they in fact stole from the dead because they found nothing wrong in sharing the food! They were hungry boys from the Ulu and happened to study in the boarding school nearby all those long years ago. They too did not want good food to go wasted.

As years went by, perhaps due to economic advancement, and also improvement in technology, we can even buy longevity buns in bakeries, but by special order.

People have also started to distribute them at birthday parties.

My mother was given her first gift of longevity buns when she celebrated a birthday in a restaurant some time ago. Those complimentary longevity buns were really nice.

I did laugh when I ate my first longevity bun - I was already 60 years old. I bought one bun to try at a Chinese New Year bazaar. Can you imagine, I waited 50 years to try a longevity bun?

It has been a kind of cultural training from childhood and also the inavailability of the food which caused us not to dare  try something that is outside our culture. I have, for this particularly food item, never dare to try to venture outside the confines of my grandparents religious training - of not eating temple food.

this temple food today is actually a nice steamed bun, made in the shape of a lovely peach. It is not specifically a food for the dead and the immortals. Yes we were told, those buns were eaten by the dearly departed and the gods only.

Have a chuckle.