It was a very big affair for my family (clan) today. I wanted to take more pictures of the paper bunglow with blinky lights and all the heaps of paper treasures, but was afraid to be scolded. Could only take this simple picture showing the folks busy folding paper money in the background.

As true pure bred Taoist Hokkien, my father and uncles decided to engage a sai-gong (Taoist priest) to appease the souls and send them to the west.

The sai-gongs begin their ritual at 9am, chanting scriptures, blowing the 唢呐 (a Chinese trumpet like instrument), and hitting the 锣 (Chinese gong). It was a noisy, I felt sorry for the neighbours who must have been disturbed by the comotion at 9am. In the old kampong days, this used to be a huge joyous event, with a whole day of praying, followed by a big banquet inviting almost the whole village, with the grand finale of burning the paper mansion, cars, money, servants. I found that there were also gold ingots, Amex card and many other valuable items. And there were two smiling pig heads, scary.

I was told that today’s ritual is a small scale one (the villa I saw during my younger days was at least 10 times bigger) and will probably end in two hours. Guess what, it ended at around 5pm. I was lucky, I had a clingy baby and could escape upstairs to look after her, feed her, nap her….actually I was surfing and blogging. The rest of my siblings, cousins, uncles and aunties ended up standing and kneeling, walking in circles, as the priest need to complete about 9 rituals. Tough time, everybody was complaining.

I hope this put an end to all the unhappy three years when one family member left us each year. I know my mom’s greatest fear, she was afraid that no children will offer incense to her. I will leave that job to my brother. When I am gone, I hope my children won’t arrange such elaborate event for me; I would be a happy soul. Just remember me as the dear person they have known. Aiyo, and no paper money for me please, the inflation rate down there (or up there) is too high!