YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE IN JOHOR

Durians harvested earlier by family friends from their orchard at Kampung Batu Badak 

CNY 2026 was celebrated by my family in Johor. We reached Segamat from KL on the eve of Chinese New Year. We visited my mum's friends in Kampung Batu Badak. They maintain an orchard filled with fruit trees in front of their house. The rambutan trees were brimming red with ripe juicy-looking fruits (as per second picture below). We went to pluck the low-hanging rambutan fruits, whilst Pakcik used a pole to harvest the ripe red "local hairy cherries" from the upper branches of the tree. We scooped up the duku langsat fruits that were dropping down from the tree when the bunches were prodded with the pole. Some of these duku langsat fruits were as small as a longan fruit. The natural sweetness pervaded my senses when I peeled one of the duku langsat open and ate it. Truly a nectar from the Gods of Orchard fruit trees. The Goddess of Mercy temple at Kampung Abdullah, Segamat, Johor welcomed the new year with a performance from a pair of red and golden pair of lions. The performers were mainly secondary school-goers. The traditional lion dance was very lively, energetic and more pictures will be shared in the next post. A video of the lion dance performance can be viewed at the beginning of this blog. What started as a drizzle on the first day of Chinese New Year morning soon turned into heavy rains by noontime. The non-stop rainfall continued until late night when it stopped for a few hours. The rains returned as dawn broke on the second day of Chinese New Year. What a wet start to the Year of the Fire Horse. Lanterns are used in China to symbolize the good fortune, vitality and to honour the horse as one of the 12 zodiac animals according to a National Geographic article which can be read HERE. Lanterns were also lighted up in one of the housing area within Kampung Tengah, Segamat with a God of Fortune inflatable mounted on the roof of one of these houses. There is a movie about the God of Fortune landing in Hong Kong from outer space, starring Alan Tam and George Lam, entitled "Kung Hei Fat Choy" (1985) which I remembered watching during the Chinese New Year holidays years ago when I was a student. According to an article in the Guardian, which you can read HERE the fire horse is a self-paradoxical year which can bring extreme success, such as rapid career progression, yet extremely challenging if one burns out or succumbs to anxiety, which may lead to failure. One is advised to harness the fire horse well, embrace the challenge and find a balance.

My sister's steady pole skills were valuable in loosening this bunch of duku langsat fruits!

The duku langsat fruits at the mid-section area of the tree were around the size of golf balls

Freshly plucked rambutan fruits with duku langsat that tasted as sweet as honey

God of Fortune inflatable BEFORE lighting

God of Fortune inflatable AFTER lighting

Colourful lanterns from Kampung Tengah residential area

I'd just like to end this post with a random DRAW results when I played with Florence the Bot from CHESS the Musical. It was not a piece of cake playing with her on the Chess online game.