Friday, April 10, 2009

Qing Ming; Cheng Beng; Clear Bright Festival

Qing Ming, or sometimes known as tomb sweeping day generally coincides with Easter but somehow, this year, it’s a week earlier.  Last weekend, papa drove the whole family to Malacca for Qing Ming.

Mama has already informed me that it is time that I help out and learn a little more about this festival.  So, I went with Pei Kong (grandpa’s elder brother), grandpa, papa, grand auntie (grandpa’s younger sister) and one koh (papa’s cousin sister).

We visited a few graves where we clean the surroundings and gave a little prayer to the heavens and also to our ancestors.

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Me helping out in trying to light the candles.

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Saying a small prayer to the heavens.

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My favourite part was to help out with the burning of gifts for our ancestors.

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Times of bad economy according to papa.  Someone tried to “steal” the 1928 tiles of great-great-grandmother’s grave.  Papa says that those tiles can fetch a very good price as a gift.

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We end the tradition by burning gold nuggets (made of paper) for our ancestors.

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