Traditions & Commerce

Someone once remarked ;' When you are flush with cash, everyday is Christmas'. I would add that when you are in love, everyday is Valentine's Day.

It is not a new opinion that certain festivals are over commercialised. Festivals like Valentine's Day, Moon Cake festival, Fifth lunar month (bak chang) are some of them.

Florists and gift shops make a killing whenever Valentine's Day comes around on February 14. Romantic restaurants serving special twosome menus also rake it in on this day. What you pay for a single rose stalk will easily get a dozen in other periods. What you pay for a lovey-dovey dinner will easily feed a poor family for a month. I am not unromantic but believe that romance should be sustained all year long; not just spiking on this particular day.

When the 8th lunar month rolls around, moon cake makers get a windfall that can easily sustain them for the rest of the year. They start selling these confectionery at the start of the seventh lunar month; so sales actually span about two months. A baker whom I know personally admitted that profit margins are at least 200%. So a moon cake that sells at Rm10 cost only rm3.00 to make at most. Worse spin off effect is that salted egg prices jump during this period due to its overwhelming use by moon cake makers; as the yolk is a popular filling. Same with prices of lotus seeds. No problem if some stocks are unsold, just recycle the fillings for other confectionery.

Same with bak kua (barbecued meat) that is sold during this period. It is very hard to get bak kua that is actually sliced from a chunk of meat. Those sold now are just flat slices of minced meat with lots of oil, salt, sugar, coloring, nitrates and nitrites in them – a veritable concoction of chemicals. Lucky that they are expensive and we don't eat it year round; it is certainly not something the doctor prescribes.

Bak chang or rice dumplings are nice to eat, to me they are also a comfort food that bring back fond memories. I used to help my mom sort the glutinous rice and mung beans, wash the leaves and then, when the process is completed help her to devour the bakchang doubly quick. Somehow, the ones your mom made always seem to taste the best; the bought ones never able to measure up to dear old mom's labour of love. How I wish my mom still had the energy to make them. My fondness for them is never satiated by bought bakchang as the makers stinge on ingredients and never steam them long enough. Terribly expensive too at minimum Rm3.50 each for the simplest ones. Buying them is akin to buying an insult with a slap thrown in for good measure. I have the recipe in my head but never got around to making them myself. Just plain lazy, I guess.

At the risk of being branded a renegade of traditions; I remain steadfast in my conviction that festivals are over commercialised by entrepreneurs out to make a fast buck.