Metro

Wednesday September 2, 2009

Paying respect to roaming spirits

By LIM CHIA YING


THIS is the time of the year when many Chinese hold prayers and burn paper offerings outside their homes while the business community host opera performances in temporary tents set up for the purpose.

For Chinese, the month-long Hungry Ghost Festival – one of the most significant occasions in the Chinese calendar – has returned, with celebrations peaking today, the 14th day of the seventh lunar month, although some will opt to celebrate it tomorrow with a vegetarian meal instead.

Good turnout: The big crowd at the charity dinner at Lorong Haji Taib organised by Persatuan Rohani Ze Chong Thong recently.

However, several associations have already started holding prayers and celebrations in various places over the last week or so, as evident from the many colourful banners hung up on the streets., while others are making preparations to stage the celebration at a later date.

As this festival involves spirits, many people, particularly those in the older generation, subscribe to several beliefs, one of which is to avoid wandering in the streets too late at night.

During my growing-up years, the elderly would advise me to be home early, and not go swimming after dark.

The dos and don’ts were more strongly advocated back then. We were told to be careful when walking on the streets so as not to “accidentally” step on joss-sticks, food offerings, or burned paper offerings left there after prayers. If we did, we would have to apologise quickly lest the consequences be dire, said the elders!

According to Chinese belief, the gates of the underworld are flung open during this month to allow the spirits of the dead to come back to Earth and roam, seeking whatever comfort they desire.

Among them are the spirits of those who died hungry or homeless, so people offer food and burn paper offerings – clothes, money and even cars and houses – to appease these spirits, wishing them well and peace.

Many hands make light work: Traders and volunteers coming together at the market in Taman Taynton, Cheras, to help fold prayer papers for burning on the last day of the festival that will be held from Sept 10 to 13.

According to Persatuan Yu Lan Taman Taynton Cheras adviser Wan Kong Fatt, whose committee has been organising the festival celebration for 21 years now, the significance of this month lies in paying respects to one’s ancestors.

“It is also about showing filial piety to your deceased parents,” said Wan, who, together with a few friends, started organising the celebration in this area.

While the Hungry Ghost Festival – which is also known as Poh Thor in Hokkien and Yu Lan in Mandarin – is sometimes compared to Qing Ming (the Chinese All Souls Day), Wan is quick to point out that Qing Ming is an occasion when families would all go to the graveyard to clean the tombstone and surroundings and pray to the deceased. Qing Ming traditionally falls in the second or third month of the Chinese calendar.

“The Hungry Ghost Festival, on the other hand, is about praying for suffering spirits that are unable to reincarnate, so that they’ll be able to experience rebirth,” he said.

The Yu Lan festival, he said, not only served as a reminder for children to be filial to their parents and ancestors, but to also pray for longevity for our parents who are alive, as well as to help deceased parents to escape sufferings in the next world, with the mercy of Buddha.

Wan said his committee was organising a four-day celebration of the festival, beginning Sept 10 with a kai kuang ceremony to invite Da Shi Ye (the God of Hades) to come to the world of the living.

“A karaoke singing activity would follow. As in previous years, we will be having three types of ceremonies over the next three days – a Buddhist ceremony on the second day, which is typically meditation and chanting by monks, followed by a Teochew Taoism ceremony on the third day and a Cantonese Taoism ceremony on the fourth, at which prayers to the gods of the four directions and burning of paper offerings will take place,” he said.

When requested, the sprightly looking 73-year-old Wan will obligingly write the names of the deceased on slips of paper to be stuck to offerings to be burnt, so that the items reach the intended recipients, saying that the younger generation were “fearful” of doing it lest they got the names wrong.

“But we are letting the younger people take charge of things, as they will have to take the lead in future,” he said.

Persatuan Rohani Ze Chong Thong in Lorong Haji Taib, Kuala Lumpur, held its celebration last month.

Part of the celebration was a sit-down charity dinner at Lorong Haji Taib 4 attended by about 1,500 people, said its chairman, L.K. Lim.

“The dinner was to raise funds for a Chinese primary school, the needy and disabled,” Lim said, adding that the celebration, conducted for the last 19 years, was always on a modest scale to commemorate this meaningful month.

“So long as it is within the seventh month, it does not matter which day it is held.”

Like Wan, Lim said the month was one to show respect for all the spirits that roamed the earth, and paper money was burned to appease them, especially those that had no next-of-kin to do so.

Lim said although the dos and don’ts were not observed as strictly these days, there were still a few rules that people adhere to.

“For instance, people don’t really hold joyous occasions like weddings or house-warming parties.

“It’s like, ‘this is their month, so we should not compete with them for attention or space and allow them the freedom to wander’,” he explained.

Also attending the dinner that night was Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun, who said he did not really heed the beliefs since he had to attend functions till late in the night, adding that he had attended a few ceremonies to which he had been invited.

After performing the last rituals, a sending-off ceremony would take place, at which an effigy of the God of Hades would be burnt, together with his horse, ship, mansion, paper apparel, hell notes, gold and silver mountains or bridges, to return the deity from whence he came.

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