Remembering the Dead!

Only the Chinese New Year and Qing Ming are two very important occasions that bond the Chinese families together.Qing Ming or Cheng Beng happened to fall on April 4 this leap year.The sky is expected to be clear and bright which bears the festival's name.This festival is sometimes called 'clear brightness festival','grave sweeping day','all souls' day' or 'spring remembrance day'.

Chinese families would visit the graves of their ancestors to observe the ritual ten days earlier or after the actual date to pay their respect or to show filial piety to their loved-ones.Normally a date will be set for members of the family to go to the cemetery or the columbarium to pay respect to the patriarch or the matriarch of the family.They would bring along food which their departed loved-ones would usually like to eat while they were alive, joss-sticks and hell money to burn by the grave side.Some richer families burned paper replicas of modern items such as cans of beer,designer clothings, mobile-phones,televisions,refrigerators,paper houses and even luxury cars.To supplement these they even burned a paper petrol station or even a designer's paper bra!

Since my family had all relocated to Penang from the east coast state of Trengganu years ago, we did not visit the graves of our loved-ones but still remember them by setting an altar at the front poach of my mother's house and invited the departed for a feast.Beside the joss-papers,and the burning of joss sticks,we would lay out tray and tray of food that my deceased father,his father and those that left earlier on in time to invite them to eat what we the livings can afford to offer.Normally,we set up vegetarian dishes , a cup of coffee, some fruits like bananas and pineapples etc.After all had prayed,then my brother would take two coins and toss them into the air to 'check' whether all have finished the grand feast and if so by the denoting of the coins,then the joss papers together with the hell notes and whatever paper peripheries would be burned for the deceased.My brother would take a pot of tea to circle the burnt items while at the same time calling our loved-ones to accept whatever were offered by the livings.Of course,once the ritual was over,we too will have a grand feast on the food just to add to our blessings!

For those who visited the graves,they would also bring along the cooked food with roast chicken or roast pork which their ancestors relished together with trays of fruits, to be laid out in front of the tomb.The family members would start cleaning the grave off the weeds and placed pieces of joss-papers all over the grave together with tiny pieces of paper flags.I was told that once the grave was attended to, the relatives of the dead need not have to do this ritual again even if they came to pray later within the set dateline!Once the joss-sticks and candles were lit in front of the tombstone and the food were laid out together with flowers,then the younger family members such as the grand children or children of the ancestor could start lighting up the paper offerings to the departed soul.For most of the graves in the cemetery,new soils or earth would be added to the tomb or grave in the believe that the descendent's would be doubly blessed with further prosperity as the dead was responsible for ensuring fertility in the family as well as in the fields. Sacrificial food and hell notes are offered to the ancestors so that the descendants will receive abundant blessings.

The whole episode sounds like All Souls' day for the Christians but to us Chinese this is the highest mark of filial piety instilled to us by our parents from a very young age to honour our dear departed in the hope that our childrens' children would continue this grand tradition!