In modern days, Chinese family will take advantage on the weekend (10 days before or after from the actual date) to make a trip back to their hometown or to visit their ancestor's tomb/graves (parents, grandparents’ & great grand parents...etc). Last weekend was the weekend mostly chosen....that explains the heavy influx of traffics on major highways and trunk roads in most places...with road upgrade in many stretches along the highway where only 1 lane is opened to traffic make the traffic situation even worse.
So, last Sunday (30/3) was the day...with mom still away in Singapore with sis, this is the 2nd year in the row I took over the responsibility to prepare and get things in order for the day....so Saturday (29/3) was the day to prepare all the necessary stuff and praying at the temple related to the family association.....I think all Chinese family would have some kind of family association tied to their family surname....Sunday morning was more a "onsite" job :)
My bro and I got up as early as 5am, boiled water to make tea, and to prepare hard boiled eggs, reheat food prepared the night before...then rushed to the market to get some fresh kueh and Dim Sum as part of the offerings. Reached cemetery at 6.30am with the sky still dark....there were already plenty of people at the cemetery. This is a well known Chinese gravesite in Penang....it is named as "Pak Wan San" in Cantonese. It means Mountain of Hundreds Spirits!!!?? Scary or interesting??
When I was young I was so scare whenever Cheng Beng arrives....what!?? Visit cemetery in the dark?? But things had changed over the years...it is so "happening" nowadays....People are "enjoying" it more....candle lights everywhere lighted up the darkness....like having mini party in the cemetery?? So, don’t be surprised if among us mistaken the "spirits" as one of us!!! Wakakakaa....
Before we proceed to our ancestor's tomb at the cemetery...we must 1st pray at the Tuah Pek Kong temple (the Cemetery Guardian) to show our respect. To save time, I will pray at the temple while asking my bro to proceed to our grandparent's tomb and start cleaning the tombs....smart ler?? Hehehe....So, by the time I am done at the TPK temple....sky is getting brighter and I hiked up the "mountain of hundreds spirits" to join my bro at our family tomb .... one thing which my grand parents had well planned i.e. all "Under one Roof ???" to make our life easier so that we do not need to go multiple locations to locate the tomb. From right, both my grand parents, my great grand father with 2 of his 4 wives....(he was not a muslim though) and my dad on the far left....
We started by cleaning up the tomb surrounding....this one makan kacang jer la as every year we paid someone to clean the tomb surrounding for us a week in advance. Hehehe....Then we started to light up the candles in front all the gravestones....and start "displaying" our offerings....then we burn incense and the paper money at the end of the ritual....
The offerings...food & fruits....
My bro in the background...
This might sounds silly to some of you (from the angle of any religion) but this has nothing to do with religion anyway, it is merely a traditional practice/culture that been observed by the Chinese and been following or practicing and passing down the generations....similar practice also been observed in some part of Korea and Japan...so if you have any comments from angle of religion you believed in....please do not post them here. It is not relevant....Just enjoy the reading...ok? Thank you :)
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