(The silver super moon we saw last night on the full moon day of Tahsaungtaing.)
Families in Burma gathered in front of their door, all together looked at the full moon in the dark sky, waiting the time as the astrologer said, holding a small plate of something like green salad. When the time came, they grabbed their spoon, and took a spoonful of that green salad, and had a good taste, and still looking at the moon.
My dear reader, don’t be puzzled. If you knew today is the full moon day of Tahsaungtaing, is the day all the stars are surely seen in the sky, moreover if you are familiar with Burmese custom, you would not be surprised to hear such performance.
Yes, on the day of full moon day of Tanhsaungtaing, no star can be hidden. It means that what we eat in this night, good for our health even the water you drink turn to an effective medicine. In the Burmese way, especially to have more effective medicine, we must eat ‘Mei Za Li buds’ (natural buds from plant) (Cassia Siamea) by the instruction of the astrologer for what time we will have to eat. This year 2016, on the 14th of November, on the full moon day (the time super moon appeared), we would have to eat ‘Mei Za Li’ at 8:46:37 PM by the instruction of the astrologer.
(Preparing Mei Za Li salad before the time comes.)
The original ‘Mei Za Li’ taste was very bitter. So we mixed with lime, onion, salt, sugar, sesame oil and other materials to have a good taste. We believed that it would be good for our health for the coming year. We have to buy this thing as quickly as possible in the market because it could be out of sold on this very day. Some said that if we cut off the leaves of the ‘Me za Li’ at the time as the astrological says, and kept them, and ate tomorrow or at the day appropriate, they were still effective and could use as medicines.
Unfortunately, I caught cold, and have been sick before the full moon day. I could not go to the market and buy Mei Za Li buds. Fortunately, Mei Za Li tree grow in our garden, but the tree was cut off few weeks ago. Luckily, we have young leaves that grew beautifully at the tree. We could cut the young leaves, and make salad, and ate under the super moon in the dark night, and wished I would be in good health soon.
I feel better after eating the Mei Za Li leaves salad. See! I gained my strength back, and can write this post, and update it!
(Mei Za Li leaves salad, not bad!)