Sunday, April 11, 2004

-*- the ceremony....  

i think that chinese traditions are so interesting! i went to 扫墓 (sao-3 mu-4.. erm for those who dont know, it means to pay respects to my ancestors, namely my paternal grandma and grandpa, it's a yearly thing, ehm every year this period of time, yeah, it's called Qingming Festival.)
anyway, we whipped (well my mum did) up a lot of very yummalicious dishes and brought to this temple where the urns of ashes of my grandparents are.. traditionally, there should be chicken duck and pig.. ehm that is if you can afford (people in the past may not be able to afford chicken duck and pig)... hmm but today we didnt have those three, we had prawns crabs fish and veggies instead.. ehm cos we actually made those last thurs already, when we did our own baibai-ing (praying) at home..
then at the temple, we spread out the food on the tables there.. one WHOLE table of food, and fruits and snacks and drinks and bee hoon (hahah we bought that in the last minute cos we were supposed to bring rice, which we didnt... heh)... and next to the table on the floor, there are a bag of folded hell money and a box of hell neccessities (hmm i guess by hell here, i mean underworld la? as in where the dead goes after they die)... the hell money are folded such that they resemble gold bars.. ehm according to my dad, that will make the hell money have more worth...
after spreading everything out, each of us offers incense to the ancestors... then we sat down and chatted and did nothing.. just to wait for the ancestors to fnish "eating".. hee.. and we actually laid the table properly with the chopsticks and spoons and drinks poured into the cups and everything... so sweet right? hee..
so after a while, when we saw that the candles are burning out, we would "ask" if they have finished eating... so my dad took two coins, and hold it up and (i think) asked them if they are done... then he'll drop the coins on the floor... and if the two coins show different sides, it means yes.. and the coin thing applies to all Y-N questions that you wanna ask the dead.. if the two coins show different sides, the answer is yes...
after they were done, we went ahead to burn the hell paper and the necessitiess... in the box of necessities, there were all kinds of things... passports, air tickets, toothpaste, toothbrush, clothes, gold bars, more money, visa cards, ciggies, anything in the world! and i really mean anything in the world... in the places where they sell these things, they have all kinds of things, from the ones i mentioned above to houses, to maids, to car etc etc.. even sushi!!! all in paper! it's like they can live like we do.. so we burn to them and "address" the stuff to them.. by writing the name of the "receiver" on the paper stuff.. and they will receive it!
after evrything was burnt, we went to pack the food into the plastic bags that we brought then we left... and that was the end of the whole thing...
okie, now my thoughts on the thing... i feel that it's quite weird that people actually do the paper stuff like sushi and visa cards etc.. ehm first of all, what if the world the dead are in is not that advanced?? second of all, those that lived in times without the visa cards and all, will they know what it is? third of all, since we believe in reincarnation, what if the dead that we are paying respects to has already reincarnated?? then who wil get the stuff? fourth, how will we know if they are received? and how do we make sure that the correct person gets the stuff? there are a lot of people with the same names! and a name like Tan Ah-Kow (no offence) used to be very common! how do they know?! five, how do we even know if the spirits will be there after they die! i mean i believe in spirits and ghosts.. i do.. but do we know for sure?
i feel that these traditions may be ways for people, who do continue to live, to remember the dead, and be less impacted by the death of their loved ones.. by offering the food and the stuff to them, we will feel a bit more secured about the well-being of the loved ones that have passed away... we will feel much happier to know that they are able to "live" comfortably wherever they are, even though they have passed away.
all in all, im intrigued by the ceremony of paying respects to the dead... really.. it's very interesting to me la.. yeah sorry to bore u guys! hee..

the ceremony.... - 

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